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 electrical appliance manufacturing company JP Industries announced a restructuring plan entailing 345 redundancies and the closure of the two Merloni sites in Fabriano (in the Marche region) and Colle Nocera (in Umbria). According to the plan, production will be carried out only at the other Fabriano site and the remaining 248 workers (out of a total of 593 currently employed by the company) will be hired by a new-co.
The trade unions deemed the announcement unacceptable and asked the government to intervene.
Eurofound (2020), JP Industries, Closure in Italy, factsheet number 99797, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/99797.