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.
Concrete product manufacturer Bonna Sabla has announced a restructuring that could lead to the loss of 230 jobs out of a total of 1,000 in France by 2020. A job protection plan was signed on 25 June and runs until the end of October. It concerns all 27 group sites in France. Some will be closed, such as the Bas-en-Basset plant (45 employees, Haute-Loire), if no buyers are found by 8 October. Having been in the hands of the American investment fund Bain Capital for 3 years, Bonna Sabla is the French leader in prefabricated concrete products. According to management, these markets are declining and the business is losing money; this is a cyclical problem linked to the decline in public investment.
Bonna Sabla has already cut about 240 positions on a total workforce of 2,100 employees in 2010. Two previous restructuring took place in 2010 (240 job cuts) and in 2013 (171 job cuts).
Eurofound (2019), Bonna Sabla, Internal restructuring in France, factsheet number 98779, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/98779.