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 state-owned utilities company, Vattenfall, has announced it will cut 1,500 jobs across several EU countries by 2020 as part of its cost reduction programme that is intended to save the company 2 billion Swedish Krona (approximately €193 million as of 23 April 2018). In February 2018, Vattenfall reported its first pre-tax profit after five years of heavy losses, but has stated it needs to reduce costs to stay competitive. The majority of job reductions will fall in Berlin and Hamburg in Germany (600), in Stockholm in Sweden (600), and in Amsterdam in the Netherlands (275). An additional 25 jobs cuts are expected to fall in other countries which have not yet been specified.
The job reductions are part of a trend of contracting employment within Vattenfall. In 2010, the company employed 40,000 in Denmark, Finland, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden and the UK. At the time of another restructuring event in 2015, Vattenfall's workforce was about 31,000. As of March 2018, the company employs approximately 20,000 people across the EU.
Eurofound (2018), Vattenfall, Internal restructuring in European Union, factsheet number 93810, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/93810.