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.
80 workers have been fired from March 2016 by Daugavpils Lokomotivju Remonta Rupnica (Daugavpils Locomotive Repair Plant, DLRR), the train engine repair group based in the south-eastern Latvian city of Daugavpils. News were reported by the Latvian public radio on May 30th, cites LETA.
Currently, DLRR employs around 550 people. There have been concerned anonymous posts on Internet websites about the future of the plant and possible mass firing of people. The Latvian public radio has not managed to contact the company’s management. DLRR is the largest company in the Baltic countries specializing in repairs to and modernization of locomotives and rolling stock and manufacturing spare parts for trains. It is also the largest company in Daugapils. Valerijs Kononovs, the head of the Daugapils branch of the State Revenue Service, confirmed that DLRR has fired a number of people, but it cannot be called a mass firing yet. As reported, consolidates sales of Daugavpils Lokomotivju Remonta Rupnica (DLRR), the train engine repair group based in the south-eastern Latvian city of Daugavpils, shrank 37% in the first quarter of this year to EUR 2.3 million. The group completed the three-month period in 2016 with a loss of EUR 0.96 million compared to loss worth EUR 0.923 million in the first quarter of last year. The big losses are due to the fact that the company was not provided with orders to full capacity. In the first quarter, the group implemented costs optimization, reduction in the number of employees and gave up unprofitable activities. Consolidated net sales of DLRR last year was EUR 19.2 million, up four% from 2014. DLRR finished the year with losses of EUR 2.7 million, which is considerably more when compared to the losses the company sustained in 2014 – EUR 1.1 million. The largest shareholders in the company are Estonia's Skinest Rail with 47.97% and Estonia's Spacecom, which belongs to the Russian transport group Severstaltrans, with 25.27%, and Estonia’s LLC Lokomotiiv Investeeringuud with 15.37%.
Eurofound (2016), Daugavpils Lokomotīvju remonta rūpnīca, Internal restructuring in Latvia, factsheet number 87628, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/87628.