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 representatives of the workers of the Havas group in Spain, French multinational advertising and public relations company, have reached an agreement with the company on a collective dismissal plan. It will involve the dismissal of 108 employees or 9 per cent of the total workforce, reducing the number with respect to the 175 dismissals that the company set at the beginning of the negotiation. The agreement establishes that all the departures will be voluntary. However, if the agreed number is not reached, there will be forced dismissals.
Havas Group has stated that this collective layoff is due to organisational and production causes; the Havas group is reorganizing its structure in Spain to adapt its workforce to the new business model and the economic context of the advertising sector. The process was accelerated due to the loss of its main client in Spain, El Corte Inglés, which is the largest advertiser in the country.
Eurofound (2018), Havas, Internal restructuring in Spain, factsheet number 96274, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/96274.