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.
Topro Industri, a rollator manufacturer headquartered in Gjøvik, is relocating more production to its main facility to enhance profitability and job stability. The company is reshoring plastic component production from China and bringing back the mechanism responsible for folding the rollator, known as the "krysset," to Gjøvik from Lena. These moves align with Topro Industri's strategy to centralize more of its production in one location. The company is investing approximately 14 million kroner in an automated production line expected to be operational by April 2021. The company had sales decline during the spring lockdown, but it successfully recovered, with all 110 staff back to work in 2020 and aims to produce over 110,000 "kryss" in Gjøvik within a year.
Eurofound (2020), Topro Industry, Reshoring in Norway, factsheet number 296, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/296.