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 spray equipment manufacturer Exel Industries has announced a plan to cut 185 jobs in its agricultural spraying division, mainly in France but also in Spain. This draft plan, which will lead to the closure of two sites in France, aims to react to decisions to ban plant protection products in France and Europe. The group has informed the employee representatives and started negotiations. The company is expected to make approximately 130 redundancies in France and 55 in Spain. These announcements come after Austria's decision to ban glyphosate-based herbicides and France already phasing them out by the end of 2021.
The French activities will be grouped into production and research competence centres, which will involve the closure of the Noyers-Saint-Martin (Oise) and Saint-Denis de l'Hôtel (Loiret) sites, whose activities will be transferred to Beaurainville (Pas-de-Calais) and Epernay (Marne) respectively. The two sites that will be closed each employ about 50 people. The plan also provides for the outsourcing of the mechanised welding activity carried out at the Beaurainville site, where about 30 people are employed.
Eurofound (2019), Exel Industries, Internal restructuring in France, factsheet number 98095, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/98095.