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.
Mackays Stores Limited, the Scottish fashion retailer trading as M&Co., has confirmed that it plans to close 47 of its 265 stores and cut 380 jobs as part of a major restructure after it was bought out of administration. The affected staff include 55 employees in the company’s head offices in London and Glasgow and 325 shop floor staff across the UK.
M&Co. was severely affected by the COVID-19 crisis. The new director said that entering administration and cutting jobs were difficult decisions, however, they ensured that the company has 'a sustainable basis from which to rebuild'.
M&Co. was founded in 1834 and it entered fashion retail in 1961, selling women's, men's, and children's clothes, as well as small homeware items.
Eurofound (2020), Mackays Stores, Internal restructuring in United Kingdom, factsheet number 101916, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/101916.