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 Dutch company Wasco Coatings Europe, responsible supplier of the concrete weight coating and pipe storing of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline between Europe and Russia, has announced that a factory in Kotka will be used for pipes coating. The same factory has previously been used for coating the pipes of the Nord Stream 1 pipeline, which opened in 2011-2012. Furthermore, Wasco's two logistics centres in Finland will be located in Kotka and Hanko.
The first deliveries of pipes are expected to arrive in Kotka in late September 2016. The coating activities should start in early 2017 and continue until the end of 2019. A Nord Stream 2 representative estimates the employment effect in Kotka to be around 200 people, while the CEO of the Port of HaminaKotka believes that the total effect in the entire port area will be some 400-500 new jobs and will involve around 70 local businesses.
Eurofound (2016), Wasco Coatings Europe, Business expansion in Finland, factsheet number 88386, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/88386.