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 French pharmaceutical giant Sanofi has announced a restructuring plan for its R&D activities that will result in 299 jobs cuts by early 2020 in the framework of a restructuring involving also Germany (167 job cuts). Sanofi wants to redirect its activities in the strategic areas of oncology, immunology, rare diseases and vaccines. Sanofi currently has nearly 4,000 research and development employees in France, out of a total of 15,000 worldwide in this type of activity.
The plan was presented to employee representatives at a central social and economic committee of the research and development division. Negotiations are expected to take a few months for the plan to be implemented in late 2019 or early 2020. The group has cut positions in France in the last years: in 2016 (657 jobs), 2014 (200 jobs), 2012 (270 jobs) and recently in March 2019 (232 jobs). A worldwide restructuring was recorded in 2011 (1,400 to 3,000 job cuts in R&D, announced in 2011).
Eurofound (2019), Sanofi, Internal restructuring in France, factsheet number 98066, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/98066.