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 Finnish and Swedish company Stora Enso has announced that they will initiate cooperation negotiations, that will affect approximately 1,900 employees. A maximum of 262 employees are at risk of being made redundant. The negotiations are taking place at five of the mills in Finland: Imatra, Oulu, Anjalankoski, Varkaus, and Heinola. The internal restructuring is part of Stora Enso's program to increase its profits and its long-term role as a competitor in the market, which was announced by the company in February.
The negotiations are expected to be carried out during 6 weeks starting mid-April.
Stora Enso is one of the largest private forest owners in the world and is a provider of renewable products in packaging, biomaterials, and wooden construction. Their headquarters lies in Helsinki, and the company has approximately 22,000 employees worldwide.
Stora Enso has gone through several unit closures recently. In June 2023 the company announced the closure of its Sunila unit (Stora Enso 2023 - FI). During the same month, the negotiations of another closure ended, also resulting in redundancies (Stora Enso 2023 - FI).
Eurofound (2024), Stora Enso, Internal restructuring in Finland, factsheet number 201040, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/201040.