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 Danish based multinational company, producing taps and valves, announced the closure of their factory in Kolding - Danfoss Refrigeration and Air-Conditioning – with the loss of 250 jobs. The production will be offshored to Groszisk in Poland, where Danfoss already has production facilities. The factory in Kolding is no longer competitive and many manual processes would need to be automated. At the closure, 250 hourly workers will be made redundant. At the same time, other job functions and employees at other factories in Vejle and Viby will be relocated or closed. In total, the company expects that 335 jobs will be cut over a period of two years beginning from the announcement date.
Danfoss has started the negotiation with the employee’s representatives about mitigating the effects of the redundancies, primarily through offering retraining and finding new jobs in the region or at other facilities of Danfoss. 3F union commented that the decision came as a surprise and that workers had the impression that Danfoss had invested in new technology, automated fairly well and cut tasks to the bone.
Eurofound (2020), Danfoss, Internal restructuring in Denmark, factsheet number 99840, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/99840.