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.
Automotive manufacturer Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) terminated the employment contracts of 530 workers at its plant of Cassino (Frosinone).
The employees have been working at the factory for few months, being hired as part of the recently disclosed plan to increase the plant’s workforce by 1,200 persons between 2017 and 2018 (see Fiat Chrysler AutomobilesIT-2017).
Despite the announcement, the company recurred to temporary agency work, whose usage no longer requires objective reasons, like production peaks, pursuant to the Jobs Act.
Some 830 temporary agency workers have been hired so far, whose contract was to terminate on 31 October 2017. FCA did not disclose information to unions and workers about their intention to terminate the contract until the day of the expiry of the contract, when 530 workers were informed via text message their contract had come to an end. The remaining 300 workers had their contract extended on a temporary basis.
According to media sources, further 50 temporary agency workers lost their job among FCA service providers in surrounding areas.
Eurofound (2017), Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, Internal restructuring in Italy, factsheet number 92890, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/92890.