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 Hungarian state postal services company, Magyar Posta, has made an announcement that it will lay off 300 employees as part of a broader cost-cutting plan. The layoff will affect Central Hungary and two counties in Eastern Hungary. The affected employees will recieve their notice of termination in January. The company's management is conducting negotiations with the works council to reach an agreement regarding the conditions of the layoff.
Nearly 7% of the employees working in the management and service departments will be laid off. On the other hand, the jobs of the delivery and service staff are not in danger. The firm still tries to recruit new workers for those areas, and the laid-off workers will have the opportunity to get a new job as delivery or service staff workers.
In addition to the layoff, the firm temporarily closes 366 post offices – out of 2,596 – throughout the country, to achieve the compulsory 25% reduction of energy consumption imposed by the government on state institutions.
Eurofound (2022), Magyar Posta, Internal restructuring in Hungary, factsheet number 107683, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/107683.