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 bank HSBC has announced that it is closing its call centre in Livingston with the loss of 167 jobs. It has blamed the move on the fact that the lease on the premises was up next year and that the site was no longer cost effective. The company announced that it expects that many staff will be redeployed to other Scottish locations, but has not ruled out compulsory redundancies.
Unite, the union representing staff on the site, has argued that the closure will not achieved the cost savings that the bank claims and that they have failed to justify their decision to leave Livingston. They have called for HSBC to enter “meaningful consultation and negotiations with the union.”
Eurofound (2008), HSBC, Closure in United Kingdom, factsheet number 66476, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/66476.