Ethics in the digital workplace
Digitisation and automation technologies, including artificial intelligence (AI), can affect working conditions in a variety of ways and their use in the workplace raises a host of new ethical concerns.
Coolblue, a Dutch online retailer of primarily electronic but also other household goods, has announced that it will be recruiting 1,000 deliverers for its regional depots in Rotterdam, Tilburg, Utrecht, Amsterdam, Groningen, and Apeldoorn. These jobs are in addition to the 1,500 new jobs announced earlier this year including positions in marketing, design, tech, delivery, and warehousing. The just announced delivery jobs concern both full time and part time positions. 1,000 extra deliverers means tripling the current delivery force, a fast-growing part of the company since the service launched in 2016. A spokesperson of trade union FNV praises Coolblue's willingness to offer new employees the possibility of a permanent position in the future, but has also expressed concern that delivery workers in general have lost purchasing power since 2012.
Coolblue was founded in 1999 by three students as a webshop for mp3 players but has since expanded its assortment, entered the Belgian market, and established nine physical stores, employing some 3,000 people in the Netherlands and Belgium.
Eurofound (2017), Coolblue, Business expansion in Netherlands, factsheet number 92245, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/92245.