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.
PSC Groupe has announced the creation of 3,000 positions by 2019. Created in 2011, PSC Group, which employs 850 people, is specialised in supplying labour to the industrial sector. Its unique trait is that it recruits employees on a permanent employment contract but these employees are shared on a mid-term period (3 years on average) among several employers.
According to the CEO, the business model is validated by the unions, with a company agreement signed in 2015 by the CFDT and the CFE-CGC. While clients obtain the same flexibility they would get when using temporary workers, the employees gain in stability in comparison to temporary workers. Furthermore, 42% of the employees have been hired by the company using their 'shared' services after three to five years of placement. PSC achieved a turnover of €14 million with four agencies in France and €1.1 million of gross margin, of which €900,000 are dedicated to maintaining the workers' wage between two assignments (on average for three months). The company's final net result for 2016 was €200,000.
Eurofound (2017), Pro Services Consulting, Business expansion in France, factsheet number 91486, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/91486.