Ethical Decision

Making:
Employer
Responsibilities
and Employees
Rights
 § Discuss the two distinct perspectives on the
ethics of workplace relationships
§ Explain the concept of due process in the
Learning workplace

Objectives § Define employment at will (EAW) and its

ethical rational
§ Relate EAW with local labor laws and
policies
 § Describe the nature of an employer's
responsibility about employee health
and safety and why the market is not
the most effective arbiter of this
responsibility
Learning § Explain the basic arguments for and
against regulation of the global labor
Objectives environment
§ Discuss global workforce and
challenges
§ Articulate the conflict between rights
and responsibilities in the workplace
Distinct Perspectives on Ethics of
Workplace Relationships
Employers treat employees
well as means to produce
greater workplace harmony
and productivity, and higher
levels of innovation – focus on
end results (utilitarian)
Employers treat employees
well out of sense of duty and
rights regardless of either
utilitarian or self-interested
productivity consequences
(deontology)
Due Process &
Performance Appraisal
§ Performance Reviews / Appraisals should have
clear and measurable metrics / KPIs
§ Performance review should actively involve
both the employee and manager.
§ Employee does a self-review, attach
documents to support his/her “self-rating”
§ Manager will have discussion with the
employee and they will agree on the
performance rating/appraisal
Due Process
§ Due process is the right to be protected
against the arbitrary use of authority. In legal
contexts, due process refers to the procedures
that police and courts must follow in
exercising their authority over citizens. In the
employment context, due process specifies
the conditions for basic fairness within the
scope of the employer's authority over its
employees.
Employment At Will
§ Employment at will is the legal doctrine that holds that In
the absence of a particular contractual or other legal
obligation that specifies the length or conditions of
employment, all employees are employed at will. This
means that unless an agreement specifies otherwise,
employers are free to fire an employee at anytime and
for any reason.
§ An EAW worker may opt to leave a job at any time for any
reason, without offering any notice at all; so freedom is
theoretically mutual
§ Not applicable in the Philippines
Cost of Employment at Will

§ EAW – important management tool, gives

managers ability to make efficient decisions
that should contribute to greater overall good
§ Though there are good points about EAW, this
tool should not be used to harm other people.
§ Freedom to terminate relationship is
theoretically mutual, employer is responsible
for employee’s livelihood
Exceptions to Employment at Will
§ Bad faith, malicious or retaliatory termination in violation of public policy
§ Termination in breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing
§ Termination in breach of some other implied contract term such as those that might be
created by employee Handbook provisions
§ Termination in violation of the doctrine of promissory estoppel (where the employee
reasonably relied on an employer's promise, to the employee's detriment)
§ other exceptions as determined by statues (such as worker adjustment and retraining
notification act or the family and medical leave act)
Security of Tenure
In cases of regular employment, the employer
shall not terminate the services of an
employee except for a just cause or when
authorized by this title. An employee who is
unjustly dismissed from work shall be entitled
to reinstatement without loss of seniority
rights and other privileges enter his full back
wages, inclusive of allowances, and his other
benefits or other monetary equivalent
computed from the time his compensation
was withheld from him up to the time of his
actual reinstatement.

Source: Labor Code of the Philippines

Probationary Employment
Probationary employment shall not exceed
six months from the date of employee
started working unless it is covered by an
apprenticeship agreement stipulating
longer period. The services of an employee
who has been engaged on a probationary
basis may be terminated for a just cause or
when he fails to qualify as a regular
employee in accordance with reasonable
standards made known by the employer to
the employee at the time of his
engagement. An employee who is allowed
to work after probationary period should be
considered a regular employee

Source: Labor Code of the Philippines

Termination by Employer (Just Causes)
§ Serious misconduct or willful disobedience
by the employee of the lawful orders of his
employer in connection with his work
§ Gross and habitual neglect by the employee
of his duties
§ Fraud or willful breach by the employee of
the trust reposed in him by his employer
§ Commission of a crime or offence by the
employee against the person of his
employer or any immediate member of his
family

Source: Labor Code of the Philippines (Article 283)

Termination by Employer (Authorized
causes)
§ Installation of labor saving devices
§ Redundancy
§ Reduction of cost to prevent losses
§ Closing due to cessation of operations
§ If your employee suffers from a health
condition that lasts more than six months
This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under or the law prohibits them from working
CC BY-ND
with such disease or working is harmful to
themselves or their co-workers, you are
entitled to terminate their contract

Source: Labor Code of the Philippines (Article 283 – 284)

Downsizing
Downsizing is the reduction of
human resources at an
organization through
terminations, retirements,
corporate divestments, or
other means

This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA

Health & Safety
• Within the US and throughout many other § Instrumental value
countries with developed economies, there is a - Lost wages that would have been earned had
broad consensus that employees have a that person lived
fundamental right to a safe and healthy
workplace.

§ Intrinsic Value
- How much life is worth
Health and Safety
• Health and safety as acceptable risk
• Health and safety as market controlled
• Health and safety as government regulated
ethics
 Health and Safety as Acceptable Risk
§ Employers cannot be responsible for providing a Challenges to Acceptable Risk Approach
completely safe and healthy workplace. Instead, § Treats employees disrespectfully by ignoring their
discussions in ethics about employee health and input as stakeholders
safety will tend to focus on relative risks workers
§ Ignores the fundamental deontological right an
face and the level of acceptable workplace risk. employee might have to a safe and healthy
working environment
Probability of harm for
Probability of harm of = or < similar, more common
Activity is § Assumes an equivalency between workplace risk
specific work
activity
Safe and other types of risk when there are significant
differences between them
§ Improperly places incentives because the risks
Probability of harm of
Probability of harm for
Activity is faced at work could be controlled by others who
> similar, more common might stand to benefit by not reducing them
specific work Safe
activity
Health and Safety as Market Controlled
§ Employees would be free to choose the
risk they are willing to face by bargaining
with employers. Employees would
balance their preferences for this against
their demand for wages and decide how
much risk they are willing to take for
various wages.
§ Those who demand higher safety
standards and healthier conditions
presumably would have to settle for lower
wages; Those willing to take higher risk
presumably would demand higher wages
Challenges with Free-Market Approach
to Health & Safety
§ Labor markets are not perfectly
competitive and free.
§ Employees seldom but says the kind of
perfect information markets require
§ We ignore important questions of social
justice and public policy if we approach
questions solely from the point of view of
an individual.
 Health and Safety as Government
Regulated Ethics
§ Mandatory government standards address most of the
problems raised against market strategies.
§ Standards can be set according to the best available scientific
knowledge and thus overcome market failures that result from
insufficient information.
§ Standards prevent employees from having to face the
fundamentally coercive choice between job and safety.
§ Standards also addressed the 1st generation problem by
focusing on prevention rather than compensation after the
fact.
§ Standards are fundamentally a social approach that can
address public policy questions ignored by markets.
§ In 1970 the US Congress established the
Occupational Safety and Health Administration
(OSHA) and charged it with establishing workplace
health and safety standards
§ Cost effective – Commitment to cost effectiveness
would require that once the standards are set, we
adopt the least expensive and most efficient
means available for achieving those standards.
§ Cost benefit analysis uses economic criteria in
setting standards in the first place; It commits us
to treating worker health and safety as just
another commodity another individual preference
to be traded off against competing commodities. It
treats health and safety merely as an instrumental
value and denies its intrinsic value.
Health and Safety (Philippines)
§ Article 168 (Labor Code of Phils) – Secretary
of Labor and Employment shall, set and
enforce mandatory Occupational Safety and
Health standards to eliminate or reduce
Occupational Safety and Health hazards in
all workplaces and institute new, and update
existing programs to ensure safe and
healthful working conditions in all places of
employment.
§ Art 162 – First Aid Treatment required at
each establishment
§ Art 163 – Emergency Medical & Dental
services
Child Labor
§ Exploitative work that involves some harm to a child
who is not of an age to justify his or her presence in
the workplace.
§ The elements of the definition – harm, age of the
child, justification to be in the workplace relative to
other options - remain open to social and economic
debate. UNICEF’s 1997 state of the world children
report explains “Children's work needs to be seen as
happening along a continuum with destructive or
exploitative work at one end beneficial work -
promoting or enhancing children's development
without interfering with their schooling recreation
and rest - at the other. And between these two polls
are vast areas of work that need not be negatively
affect a child's development.”
Employment of
Minors

Source: Labor Code of the Philippines

 Discrimination
§ Treating a person or particular group of people
differently, especially in a worse way from the way
in which you treat other people, because
of their skin color, sex, sexuality, etc.

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Diversity
§ Diversity refers to the presence of differing
cultures, languages, ethnicities, races, affinity
orientations, genders, religious sects, abilities,
social classes, ages, and national origins of the
individuals in a firm. When used in connection with
the corporate environment, Iran compasses the
values of respect, tolerance, inclusion, and
acceptance.
§ Multiculturalism – Refers to the principle of
tolerance an inclusion that supports the
coexistence of multiple cultures while encouraging
each to retain that which is unique or individual
about that particular culture.
Affirmative Action
§ A policy or a program that strives to redress
past discrimination through the
implementation of proactive measures to
ensure equal opportunity. In other words
affirmative action is the intentional inclusion
of previously excluded groups. Affirmative
action efforts can take place in employment
environment's education or other arenas.
§ Reverse discrimination - Decisions made or
actions taken against those individuals who
are traditionally considered to be in power
or the majority such as white men, or in
favor of a historically non dominant group
Basic Guidelines for Affirmative Action
§ The affirmative action efforts or policy may not unnecessarily infringe upon the majority
employees’ rights or create an absolute bar to their advancement
§ The affirmative action effort or policy may not set aside any positions for women or minorities
and may not be construed as quotas to be met
§ It should unsettle no legitimate, firmly rooted expectation of employees
§ It should be only temporary in that it is for the purpose of attaining, not maintaining, a balanced
workforce
§ It should represent a minimal intrusion into the legitimate settled expectations of other
employees
Thank you
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