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.
Sitel, a global contact centre company, cuts 300 call centre jobs in Plymouth, South West of England. The redundancies will take effect by Christmas. The affected workers provide outsourced contact centre services on behalf of John Lewis, the UK-based department store chain.
Sitel did not comment on the news, while a representative of the contractor John Lewis explained that this restructuring aims to improve their company's internal contact systems. However, some of the affected workers have informed the press that some of the positions are being offshored to the Philippines.
Sitel provides outsourced customer service and technical support for large companies. The company has 75,000 employees in 27 countries. The call centre jobs in Plymouth were created in early 2018.
Eurofound (2019), Sitel, Internal restructuring in United Kingdom, factsheet number 99486, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/99486.