Employees’ Rights and Responsibilities and Employer’s Ethical Responsibilities

1 Business Ethics Task 2: Employees’ Rights and Responsibilities and Employer’s Ethical Responsibilities January 20th, 2020 2 A1. Employees’ Rights and Responsibilities    Loyalty, Obedience and Confidentiality to the employer o Loyalty to an employer plays a key role in the sustainability of a company. This allows the owners to run business without close supervision. If there was no loyalty held by the employees for the company, there would be a strain on the relationship or fear of losing employees at a moment’s notice. The employee works for an agreed upon hourly wage or salary. Managerial employees have an even higher level of expertise and daily decision making for the company and thus require even higher amounts of loyalty and confidentiality to make the company run smoother. Keeping strategic decision making within the company to retain a competitive advantage over other companies. Adhering to decisions and directives set forth by the employer. o This is crucial in the success of a company. Company stakeholders and leadership have to be able to rely in good faith the employees that are in subordinate positions follow directives sent down from top leadership. This helps push the company towards its mission and objective. To make a comparison, it is like a ships crew following the orders of the captain. If they were to steer from the set course, they would not end up where they trusted the captain to guide them. To obtain a company’s vision it is imperative that directions are followed closely. Whistleblower Rights of the employee o If a behavior or practice presents a real threat and harm to the employee or other persons, it is justified that an employee speaks up. There are ethical routes to this however. Before an employee blows the whistle publicly, they must take the proper internal routes to correct and bring the practice to the attention of the leadership. If the action is illegal, they must do what they can to prevent the crime from happening first. This can be done by sending up a notice through the chain of command. If there is no resolution once these options are exhausted it is ethical to whistle blow to the public. A2. Employers’ Ethical Responsibilities  Providing a safe working environment for employees o A safe working environment can be in many forms. A harassment free work zone is included on the list. An employer has the responsibility to make sure that it’s employees are provided with an environment that promotes healthy work behaviors and keeps them safe from un-wanted sexual advances or physical harassment. In the manufacturing industry there is a large amount of responsibility placed on the company to provide all employees with clearly outlined safe practices and equipment. Personal Protection Equipment such as earplugs, safety glasses, and burn suits are examples in the metal forging industry. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) assists and regulates employers on these safety practices. 3  Equal Opportunity Employment o Providing all potential and current employees with the fair and equal opportunity for compensation and career advancement is a major responsibility of employers in the modern working world. Race, color, religion, sexual preference, gender expression, age, and disability are all protected under the EEOC act of 1972. The keeps the work field as an equal as possible. A3. Ethical Business Dilemma  George is a new employee at the ACME Aluminum Recycling plant. George enjoys his new job and is fascinated by the process of melting aluminum scrape into liquid and then casting the molten metal into a solid rolled sheet of aluminum. He works in the melting department and a requirement of his job is to dross the furnace, which is to scrape a layer of melted impurities off the molten metal bath. When doing this task George notices a heavy thick smoke that fills the air. After several days of dumping dross into piles at the back of the facility George notices he has a severe cough and trouble breathing. Fearing the high level of Aluminum Oxide in the air he brings this concern up to the management. He suggests that the team is provided with respiration masks to prevent sickness. The management says that is out of the question as it’s not in the budget for the year, but he is welcome to provide his own. As mentioned before, Personal Protection Equipment in such fields is a responsibility of the employer and can be enforced by OSHA. What does this situation say about the moral compass and ethics held by the ACME company? How does this make the employees feel about their worth to the company vs. the profits and budgets? How should this be solved? A4. Ethical Business Dilemma: Evaluation   Relativistic Theory: Morality is relative to the norms of one’s culture. Actions are right or wrong depending on the moral norms of the society.  When applying this theory to our dilemma created above the company has a moral obligation to provide proper PPE for the workers in the melting department. OSHA is an organization founded on American principles that instruct U.S. companies with the need to provide safe working environments and care for their workers. If this case was brought before an OSHA committee, they would side with the worker and instruct the company to provide PPE for respiratory risks. Utilitarian Approach: Determines right from wrong by focusing on the outcomes of a scenario. The most ethical choice is the one that provides the greatest good for the greatest number of people.  When applying this approach to our dilemma created above the company has a ethical responsibility to provide all workers with proper PPE. Providing the entire melting staff with respirators is going to have the largest positive outcome. The staff will benefit from safe health practices and the stakeholders themselves will have a positive outcome since they will be protecting themselves from possible lawsuits or fines. 4 A5. Ethical Decisions   Theft from the workplace o Theft from the workplace can be a common dilemma that is dealt with. This can come in many forms. One employee witnessing another taking offices supplies such as batteries from the company store room for home use. This is taking away from potential profit of the company which effects all shareholders by increasing the costs of operation. Another great example of this is witnessing a bartender making free drinking or handing out beers to costumers to increase their own tip percentage. This is also increasing operation costs to the company. It might be hard for one employee to alert management about this in fear of losing a friend. Witnessing defacement of company property o Let’s say a company just spent $40K remodeling their onsite locker rooms for a manufacturing company. This was a reward to the entire team to boost morale and celebrate record setting EBITA numbers. One employee witness another defacing the lockers and restroom stalls with black markers. Let’s also pretend that this employee is friends with the individual committing the offense. It might be hard for them to bring this to management in fear that their friends might lose their job. They are facing an internal debate on whether or not to bring this up. On one hand it’s their friend, but on the other they take great pride in the company and feel as though they are doing the defacing themselves if they don’t put a stop to it. A hard situation for anyone to be in. A6. Ethical Decisions: Explanation   As far as the employee talked about in “Theft from workplace” dilemma from A5 is concerned they could justify the taking of supplies to themselves as in a few ways. They may convince themselves that taking four AA batteries isn’t that big of a deal or cost the company much at all since there is a surplus of over 100 batteries in the storeroom. They might also be thinking along the lines of “The company’s profit margins are big enough to where they can afford it and won’t even notice”. When considering the other example of the employee witnessing a bartender handout free drinks, they might justify this the same way. They don’t want to ruin a friendship over something as small as a free drink or that the company can “afford” to lose a little bit off the top line. These are dangerous patterns of thinking and can lead to bigger offenses down the road. The ethical dilemma outlined in the answer to A5 “Witnessing defacement of company property” is pretty simple. Much like the employee in the aforementioned scenario of witnessing someone steal drinks at the bar, this employee is witnessing someone defacing company property. Therefore, there moral dilemma is between a friendship or siding with the moral values of the company, along the lines of respecting corporate property. They might justify not informing the company that they witnessed the defacing because they were the only party to witness it. They might think that the company leadership will never know that they in fact know who defaced the property therefore it’s not reason enough to lose a friendship over. Since they don’t stand to lose their job they might just “let it go”.