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 Norwegian technology group Kongsberg Gruppen will cut 260 jobs, about a 100 of these in Norway, after being in deficit due to the acquisition of Rolls-Royce Marine in April 2019. In addition to job reduction measures, the company will merge Rolls-Royce Marine with Kongsberg Maritime, sell the Vung Tau plant in Vietnam, close down offices and take other measures to balance the finances. According to the company’s Finance Director, these measures will lead to savings of about 200 million a year. The job cuts will affect full-time employees in various countries, and there might be additional jobs cuts in the future. There is no reference to the opinions of the trade unions on the matter.
The company undertook several restructuring processes in 2015 and 2017 after the crisis in the oil industry, as previously reported (see Kongsberg Maritime 2017 NO and Kongsberg Maritime 2015 NO). The hiring of 150 new employees in 2018 was described as positive news (Kongsberg Gruppen 2018 NO), but the recent announcement of job reduction measures shows that the company is still working on balancing its finances. The company has about 7000 employees worldwide.
Eurofound (2019), Kongsberg Maritime, Merger/Acquisition in Norway, factsheet number 97749, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/97749.