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 Tuesday 24th of January, Whirlpool Corporation announced plans to restructure its Europe, Middle East and Africa manufacturing operations. Whirlpool is a multinational manufacturer and marketer of home appliances and the restructuring plan will affect around 500 workers in UK, France and Poland. The company anticipated that job cuts will be completed by 2018.
Whirlpool said that as part of the restructuring process, the dryer manufacturing production of Yale (UK) will be for UK customers only, while the Lods (Poland) plant will focus on the production of dryers for non-UK consumers.
The Amities (France) facility will cease production in 2018. The ending of production will affect 290 workers.
Eurofound (2017), Whirlpool, Internal restructuring in World, factsheet number 90126, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/90126.