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 Commercial Court of Lyon has decided the liquidation of the furniture manufacturer Grange located at Saint-Symphorien-sur-Coise (Rhone). The court did not receive a sufficiently strong takeover bid. In France where 106 people were employed, the shareholder, the American group Middleby, has opened a negotiation on the dismissal allowance to be paid to employees, beyond the amount of compensation provided by law.
The company was created in 1904. Despite the financial support of local authorities in France, in ten years, its turnover was divided by four and decreased to €12 million in 2017 for losses greater than €15 million. Grange employed 176 employees, 106 in France and 70 abroad, mainly in its shops in the United States, Mexico, Luxembourg, Netherlands and Poland.
Eurofound (2018), Grange, Bankruptcy in World, factsheet number 95855, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/95855.