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.
On 22 November 2017, the German savings bank Sparkasse Köln-Bonn confirmed the loss of 850 jobs within the next 5 years due to internal restructuring. According to a bank spokesman, job reductions are necessary in order to keep personnel costs stable given the prospect of possible tariff increases. The bank is also reacting to the increasing digitalisation in the financial sector. As more people use online banking, branches are becoming dispensable in some cases.
Management announced that there will not be any compulsory redundancies and will try to find socially acceptable measures. Currently Sparkasse Köln-Bonn has 4,200 employees.
Eurofound (2017), Sparkasse Köln-Bonn, Internal restructuring in Germany, factsheet number 92617, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/92617.