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 company Din Utvikling providing career counselling services to the Norwegian Labour and Welfare Administration (NAV) is downsizing with 120 jobs. The downsizing is due to the company losing several tenders for NAV during the past year.
The background for the downsizing is also that the company has been pressured to change its employment model during the past years. In the autumn of 2017, a report from the law firm Wiersholm concluded that most of the career counselors were illegally associated with the company as independent contractors when they should have been employees. Because of this report, the company decided to hire the contractors as permanent employees in May 2018. About 8 per cent of the career counselors working on specific projects remained contractors. Din Utvikling also established a collective agreement with the Union of Employees in Commerce and Offices (HK) in 2018. When it comes to the downsizing, the shop steward expresses frustration over the lack of job security in a system where one cannot plan for more than four years at a time.
Din Utvikling is part of the Frisk Utvikling Group, and has about 260 employees throughout the country.
Eurofound (2019), Din Utvikling, Internal restructuring in Norway, factsheet number 98211, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/98211.