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.
Taiwanese mobile phone maker HTC is to create 300 new jobs with the opening of its service centre for Europe in June 2015 in the city of Brno. The city benefits from its strategic position based on direct access to the motorway network and skilled workers. In the first year, the total investment will reach CZK 1 billion. As reported, the site will employ about 1,000 people in the long run.
Update 24/8/2015: Newspaper reports indicate that HTC apparently has abandoned the plan to run its service centre for Europe in Brno, previously indicated in June 2015. The company has started to lay off newly recruited staff (about a dozen employees). In mid-August 2015, the company announced plans to reduce its global workforce by about 15 percent and operational expenses by more than a third. HTC has problems with sales levels and expects a net loss this quarter.
Eurofound (2015), HTC, Other in Czechia, factsheet number 79946, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/79946.