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.
Supermarket giant Tesco has announced plans to cut around 9,000 jobs from across its UK stores. In 90 of its stores the fish, meat and delicatessen counter service will be closed and in the remaining 700 stores these counters will be run on a part-time basis. Staff canteens will see hot food options removed as part of the overall cost cutting plan. Senior management roles are also set to go, with the company planning to move to ‘a simpler and leaner structure’. According to a spokesperson for the company, the restructuring is driven by the competitiveness of the labour market and the change in customers’ way of shopping.
Tesco has confirmed though that there are currently no plans to make any changes to its in store bakeries. Although 9,000 jobs will be affected, Tesco has said that it will look to redeploy staff where possible, and it is thought that around half of the affected staff could be redeployed. The timeframe for the cuts has yet to be reported.
Previous restructurings took place in June (500 jobs lost) and January (1,700 jobs lost, while 900 created) 2018.
Eurofound (2019), Tesco, Internal restructuring in United Kingdom, factsheet number 96677, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/96677.