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.
Union officials have said they are disappointed after 120 hospital staff in east Lancashire were told they are to be made redundant or redeployed. The job cuts mainly affect management and office roles and are being made to balance the books, the East Lancashire Hospitals Trust said. The Trust is not allowed to go into debt but Unison has said it will try to reduce the numbers of staff affected. The Trust said only a small percentage of its 6,500 staff will be at risk. Jo Cubbon, Chief Executive, said: 'Our duty is to deliver the best possible health care for the population we serve within the resources we have available. Clearly we have done and will continue to do everything we can to avoid the need for redundancies. However we are in the process of notifying 60 members of staff that they are at risk of redundancy. This is both because it has been judged that the role they currently carry out is no longer essential and because our experience suggests that the members of staff concerned may be difficult to redeploy into other roles.'
Eurofound (2007), East Lancashire Hospitals Trust, Internal restructuring in United Kingdom, factsheet number 65338, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/65338.