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 Lear Corporation, a manufacturing company producing seats for automobiles, announced redundancies for 250 of the workers currently employed in Grugliasco, in the province of Turin. The plant used to produce seats for the automotive producer Maserati, part of of the FCA group but the production of these has been moved to Turkey.
Currently, these workers are employed under a subsidized working-time reduction scheme and are working only a few days a month because of the reduction in Maserati's production volumes.
Workers and trade unions organised a sit-in in front of the seat of Unione Industriali (the local branch of Confindustria) to protest against the decision.
Eurofound (2020), Lear Corporation, Internal restructuring in Italy, factsheet number 99799, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/99799.