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.
The Swedish Migration Agency has announced plans to cut 111 jobs in Halland and Västra Götaland counties due to the diminishing amount of refugees arriving in Sweden. 48 of the redundancies will be carried out in Vänersborg municipality, 27 in Mariestad, 23 in Halmstad and 13 in Borås. The employer-employee negotiations are expected to be finalised in February 2018, after which the majority of the jobs would terminate in the summer of 2018 and the final ones in early 2019.
The Migration Agency estimates that the number of asylum seekers arriving in the two counties will be 40% in 2018 as compared to 2017. The Agency nevertheless intends to continue reception centre activities in all affected municipalities.
The Migration Agency reduced hundreds of jobs in 2017 on the same grounds. The Agency furthermore published in November 2017 a preliminary announcement of a total foreseen reduction of 1,000 job nationally during 2018.
Eurofound (2017), Swedish Migration Agency, Internal restructuring in Sweden, factsheet number 92849, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/92849.