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 administrators for SUK Retail, which is trading as Office Outlet have announced that 17 of its stores will be closed across the UK in April, with a loss of 167 jobs.
The company’s administrators at Deloitte stated that they continued to search for a new owner of the company, which was formerly known as Staples. The joint administrator claimed that the company faced a reduction in credit from key suppliers and that had an impact to its financial position. These 167 job losses are in addition to the 106 jobs which were lost at Office Outlet’s head office and distribution centre in Daventry, Northamptonshire on 26 March and were not announced by the company or its administrators at the time.
The UK-based company is a retailer of office supplies and business technology, and provides copy and print services to businesses and schools. When it entered administration, Office Outlet had 1,200 employees and 90 stores.
Eurofound (2019), Office Outlet/SUK Retail, Bankruptcy in United Kingdom, factsheet number 97636, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/97636.