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.
Tamoil, one of main companies specialized in refining petroleum and commercializing energy products, is to cut around 270 jobs at its refinery located in Cremona. The company has decided the closure of the refinery in Cremona, converting it into a deposit. The refinery currently has 300 employees. The trade unions reacted to the company's decision announcing several protest actions. Also the local authorities have demanded the involvement of regional and national authorities in order to keep the refinery activity in Cremona.
At the beginning of April, the company and the trade unions, with the support of the Ministry of Economic Development, reached an agreement on the management of the refinery's closure. The agreement envisages that around 50 employees will be re-employed in the Tamoil deposit, around 40 employees will be outplaced, while for around 50 employees the agreement provides for early-retirement measures. For the other 140 employees the agreement envisages the recourse to Wage Guarantee Fund schemes and to a special company fund which will guarantee to the redundant workers 90% of the current salary for five years. At last, the agreement envisages that the Tamoil will create a "solidarity fund" (of around EUR 200,000) in order to cushion the negative effects of the closure for the small and medium enterprises which have operated as subcontractors of the refinery. The fund will be managed by the Province of Cremona and the local Chamber of Commerce. All the measures provided by the agreement will start at the beginning of 2012.
Eurofound (2010), Tamoil, Closure in Italy, factsheet number 71181, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/71181.