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.
Supermarket chain company El Árbol Supermercados y Distribución announced a labour force adjustment plan for its wholesale stores branded Max Descuento. While the company succeeded in selling five stores, the other 30 remain unsold, for which the company considers the plan necessary. The latter is expected to affect between 200 and 210 employees. The company began negotiating the plan with trade unions Fetico, CC.OO. and UGT. Trade union Fetico (the most representative in the company) maintains that the company is exclusively responsible for the strategic decisions that led to the current situation. The trade union promises as well to find alternative solutions with the company's management to guarantee the viability and the continuity of employment, to ultimately reduce the number of redundancies.
The company is a subsidiary of supermarket chain group DIA, which implemented a labour force adjustment plan affecting more than 1,600 employees in February 2019.
Eurofound (2019), El Árbol Supermercados y Distribución, Internal restructuring in Spain, factsheet number 98948, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/98948.