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.
Colruyt a Belgian multinational retail chain has announced it will take over 57 of 80 stores of competing chain Match & Smatch (part of the Louis Delhaize Group). However, a consequence of this takeover is that 690 employees at Match & Smatch are at risk of losing their job. The company management has announced that because of a lack of alternative solutions, they intend to initiate a collective dismissal procedure for employees in that situation.
The national competition authority still has to approve the merger for Colruyt in view of maintaining fair competition within the sector.
Eurofound (2023), Match/Smatch, Merger/Acquisition in Belgium, factsheet number 200355, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/200355.