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 German car supplier Bosch announced a reduction of 1,100 positions at its Powertrain solutions plants in Stuttgart-Feuerbach and Schwieberdinge, over the following two years. The Powertrain solutions unit comprises e-mobility and diesel engines. The restructuring is motivated by a sharp downturn in demand for diesel engine and production shift to electric systems, according to the company's management.
Currently, both plants employ a total workforce of 9,600. On 11 December 2019, the management and the works council informed that 500 jobs out of 1,600 initially planned job cuts will be saved due to an agreement on non-compensated working time reductions in 2020 and 2021. The rest 1,100 positions will be shed by 2022, 300 of those via early retirements, natural fluctuation and voluntary termination of contracts. The reduction of the remaining 800 positions will be further negotiated.
The restructuring is part of a major programme affecting several Bosch plants in Stuttgart, Schwäbisch-Gmünd, Reutlingen and Bremen. In fall 2019, Bosch said it will shed up to 3,500 jobs in Germany. Trade union protests and negotiations with the works councils are ongoing.
Eurofound (2019), Bosch, Internal restructuring in Germany, factsheet number 99378, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/99378.