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.
On 20 May 2010, the Tyrol-based glassware and jewellery maker Swarovski announced that it will cut 800 jobs within the next four years at its headquarters in Wattens.
The family-run business that operates the brands Swarovski Crystal Business, Tyrolit, Swareflex and Swarovski Optik, plans to cut 200 jobs annually from 2011 to 2014. The company has assured that the redundancies will take the form of natural attrition only. In order to keep its position as market leader against competitive pressure from Egypt and China, Swarovski is partially relocating its production to Eastern Europe, where a new production site will be built, and India and China, where existing ones will be enlarged. The head office will remain in Wattens, where the whole process of relocating will be steered and controlled from. Investments of EUR 100 million are planned there.
The company has already made 1,700 jobs redundant in Wattens within the last two years and is currently employing 5,000 staff at the site. The Tyrolean branch of the Austrian Trade Union Federation is criticising the company's plans for their effects on the local labour market and promised to monitor closely whether the company keeps its promise of refraining from direct dismissals.
In 2009, Swarovski's turnover dropped by 11 percent, thereby making restructuring measures necessary claims the company. Swarovski currently employs 25,000 staff members in 120 countries.
Eurofound (2010), Swarovski, Offshoring/Delocalisation in Austria, factsheet number 70576, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/70576.