BBB2154 Business Ethics Prepared by Dr Khairul Anuar. L6 Employment, Discrimination, and Affirmative Action

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1 BBB2154 Business Ethics Prepared by Dr Khairul Anuar L6 Employment, Discrimination, and Affirmative Action

2 Employment-At-Will The contract between employers and employees is generally viewed as a kind of transaction. In the absence of specific contracts, the default position in the United States has been the development of a legal position known as the doctrine of employment-at-will. Employers are free to hire whomever they choose and to fire them whenever they choose, for any reason or even for no particular reason. Individuals are free to work for whomever they choose who offers them a job or position, and they may quit whenever they wish, for any reason or even for no particular reason. Although the doctrine sounds fair and symmetrical, it has come under greater and greater attack and has been more and more circumscribed by law, for ethically justifiable reasons.

3 Rights in Hiring, Firing, and Promotion The rights to rest periods, vacations, holidays, and workdays of reasonable length are all generally acknowledged in American society. Once hired, employees have the right to cost-of-living increases periodically and to fair consideration for merit salary raises and should be given the reason for lack of such increases if they might usually be expected. The longer one has been employed by a firm, the greater the obligation of the firm not to fire, except for cause. The employer should inform the employee of the reason for the termination of employment.

4 Discrimination, Affirmative Action, and Reverse Discrimination The issues of discrimination, affirmative action, and reverse discrimination have been hotly debated on the American scene since 1961, when President John F. Kennedy issued Executive Order creating the Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity. The reaction of corporate America to these Court decisions was similar to the split reaction of the universities and the general public. The message they took away was that seeking a diverse employment environment is acceptable, while quotas are not.

5 Discrimination Because workers have the right to equal treatment, discrimination on the basis of non job-related characteristics when hiring, firing, or promoting people is immoral.

6 Discrimination Discrimination is unjust and causes harm to those against whom it is practiced. Compensatory justice demands that restitution be made to those harmed. The compensation should be equivalent to the harm suffered, and it should be paid to the one harmed by the one who caused the harm.

7 Discrimination How can America satisfy the demands of compensatory justice without continuing discrimination in another form? First, the problem is not simply one of individuals, classes, or groups; the problem involves all members of society. Past discrimination was a result of social structures; therefore, these have to be changed, and some beneficial structures must be built that give at least some compensation for those still suffering from the effects of discrimination. Second, in an attempt to change existing conditions, the government has mandated equal employment opportunity for all. Although this is morally proper, some claim it is not enough. Third, affirmative action can be taken to ensure that members of those groups previously discriminated against are not further ignored by the system. Fourth, preferential hiring can arguably be implemented to achieve affirmative-action goals without involving reverse discrimination. Each of these deserves further discussion.

8 Reverse Discrimination If discrimination using non job-related criteria of race, color, sex, religion, or national origin is unjust when used against women or members of minority groups, it would also be unjust when used against white males. Is it fair or just to hire qualified women or minority members over equally or more qualified white males? Can hiring women or minority members in order to rectify past discrimination or to balance one s workforce be a legitimate aim for a firm?

9 Balanced or Preferential Hiring Affirmative action does not justify hiring unqualified women or minority members in preference to qualified white males. Qualified women and minority members can morally be given preference, on the basis of sex or race, over equally qualified white males, in order to achieve affirmativeaction goals. Qualified women and minority members can morally be given preference over better qualified white males in order to achieve affirmative-action goals. Preferential hiring is not mandatory in any given case, although overall, a firm must make adequate progress toward achieving affirmative-action goals.

10 The Rights of Employees As moral beings, employees carry with them in all their endeavors and undertakings the moral obligation to do what is right and to avoid doing what is wrong. An employer is also bound by the moral law. Hence, neither side in the hiring process has the moral right to set whatever terms it wishes. The background conditions for any contract between employer and employee are the conditions set by morality, law, and local custom, and by the existing social circumstances in which the contract is made.

11 The Right to Treatment with Respect The right of an employee to be treated like a human being is a moral right. It is an extremely broad and, in many ways, a vague right. Nevertheless it is a central right. Its foundation is straightforward: Each person is a human being, a moral agent deserving of respect.

12 Sexual Harassment The right to freedom from sexual harassment in the workplace has come to the fore in recent years. Sexual harassment is demeaning and fails to show people the respect they deserve. The courts in the United States have recognized two types of sexual harassment: quid pro quo harassment and hostile environment harassment.

13 Sexual Harassment Quid pro quo harassment is the most commonly recognized form of sexual harassment. It occurs when (1) job benefits, including employment, promotion, salary increases, shift or work assignments, performance expectations and other conditions of employment, are made contingent on the provision of sexual favors, usually to an employer, supervisor or agent of the employer who has the authority to make decisions about employment actions, or (2) the rejection of a sexual advance or request for sexual favors results in a tangible employment detriment, a loss of a job benefit of the kind described above. Hostile environment sexual harassment refers to a situation where employees in a workplace are subject to a pattern of exposure to unwanted sexual behavior from persons other than an employee's direct supervisor where supervisors or managers take no steps to discourage or discontinue such behavior. It is distinguished from quid pro quo sexual harassment, where a direct supervisor seeks sexual favors in return for something within the supervisor's powers, such as threatening to fire someone, or offering Copyright them a 2011 raise Pearson Education. All Rights Reserved.

14 The Right to a Just Wage The right to a just wage, sometimes called a living wage, is a right derived from the right to life, the right to employment, and the right to respect.

15 Keeping Desperation out of the Labor Market A just legal and political system must at least provide an income floor and must keep desperation out of the market by providing alternatives to forced acceptance of any wage offered, regardless of conditions. Only within a set of what can be called fair background institutions can the market be allowed to determine wage differentials. Although in general the approach to wages in the United States is both morally justifiable and acceptable to most Americans, and although gross exploitation is not a burning issue in American labor relations, it does not follow that the notion of a fair or just wage is absent from the American scene.

16 Fairness Beyond the Minimum There are five levels of interpretation of the principle equal pay for equal work. (1) on an international level, across an occupation or position; (2) on a national or regional level, across an occupation or position; (3) on an industry level; (4) on a company level; and (5) on an individual or interpersonal level.

17 Privacy, Polygraphs, and Drugs Employees have a moral right to privacy. They work for their employers for a certain period of time each day, and the rest of their time does not belong to the company but to themselves. They should be allowed to do what they want during that time, free from company interference.

18 Polygraph Testing The use of polygraph tests for preemployment purposes is at least prima facie unethical. Using a polygraph test on current employees may violate workers rights in the following ways: The questions asked could be of a type that the firm had no right to ask. The range of questions employers might go into issues which employers have no right to go, such as one s sexual preferences, religious beliefs, political affiliations, home life, and drinking habits. Those taking the test have no guarantee that the results of the test would be kept private.

19 Drug Testing If drug testing is morally justified, the reasons must be important enough to override the employee s right to privacy. Random drug testing also tends to cause uncertainty and uneasiness among workers, since they never know when they will be called. Defenders of the practice claim that this is the point: Since workers do not know when they will be tested, they have an incentive not to use drugs. The positive effects of random drug testing have not been empirically proven.

20 HIV Testing The emergence of AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome) has raised issues about workers rights. One issue concerns the right of the person with AIDS to privacy. The second is the right of the person with AIDS to nondiscriminatory treatment. The third is the claimed right of other workers not to be exposed to a fatal and communicable disease.

21 Employee Duties Although workers have rights on the job, they are hired to perform specific tasks, and justice demands they do the job for which they are hired. Workers are morally obliged to obey the moral law, and they are legally obliged to obey the civil law at work, just as during all other times. Employees are obliged not to lie, not to spread false information, not to sexually or otherwise abuse or harass others. Workers are morally obliged to treat their fellow employees, whether above or below them, with respect. Employees are also obliged to fulfill the terms of their contracts. Employees are obliged to consider the interests of the firm for which they work.

22 Worker Loyalty and Obedience Though obedience can be morally justified, there are clear moral limits to obedience. No one can be morally obliged to do what is immoral. Loyalty is also a quality expected and demanded by many firms. Being loyal in these ways is morally permissible, but it is not morally obligatory. One has no general moral obligation of loyalty to one s employer, even though employers would like to have loyal employees.

23 The Right to Organize: Unions In a just society, among the institutions necessary to achieve a system of fair wages, unions have played an important role. The justification for unions in the free-enterprise system stems from the prior right of individuals to the greatest amount of freedom compatible with a like freedom for all. This includes the right of individuals to pursue their own ends and the right to associate with others to achieve common ends. The right to form unions is recognized in the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights, as well as in many international conventions. Although workers have the right to form and join unions, workers have no obligation to do so.

24 The Right to Strike In relations between labor and management, there are four major groups involved: Labor Management Government general public. Often the right of the public must be weighed against the right of the workers to strike. A frequent example is public-sector strikes.