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 Austrian BAWAG PSK retail bank plans to cut its workforce by 500 employees by 2012. In order to secure sustained profitability, the financial institution, which is owned by a consortium led by the US based Cerberus Capital Management investment firm, needs to reduce its personnel costs by EUR 60 million, equivalent to 500 fulltime positions. Most of the redundancies will take the form of natural attrition which equates to about 150 to 200 employees a year. The bank will offer all concerned employees socially acceptable solutions with social plans and generous golden handshakes.
Update 17 September 2013:
The shed of an additional 700 job losses is reported in the media, based on 'insider sources'.
Update 6 November 2013:
Media report that the additional 700 job losses are to take place in the first quarter of 2014. This has been denied by the bank, insisting that the restructuring programme will finished by the end of 2013.
The bank further stated that within the "Bolero" restructuring, between the end of 2010 and mid-2013, some 310 jobs have been cut (of 500 announced). The bank does not state, however, how many jobs were lost in the second half of 2013.
Eurofound (2010), Bawag PSK, Internal restructuring in Austria, factsheet number 70529, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/70529.