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.
Polythene film manufacturing company Total Polyfilm announced the termination of production, resulting in the dismissal of the majority of its 206 employees. According to reports, 189 employees across the company's two sites have received redundancy notices. The remaining 17 employees are retained while the administrators seek to sell the business and its remaining assets. The company points to a severe fire at its Preston site in 2016 as the cause of its trading problems ever since. Even though the facility was subsequently rebuilt, the business lost customers and never fully recovered.
Eurofound (2019), Total Polyfilm, Bankruptcy in United Kingdom, factsheet number 98646, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/98646.