Activity 05: Fair Wage and Religion in the Workplace

Developing Good Work Ethic

BMGT 27: Good Governance and Social Responsibility
Instructor: Ms. Evelyn O. Papa, evelyn.papa@cvsu.edu.ph
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Instructions: Create a group with 2-3 members and work together to analyze the case below and answer
the questions after.

Fair Wage and Religion in the Workplace

Case 1: Fair Wage?

CHEHOMA Corporation has been operating for almost 10 years now. After five years of operation, it
started borrowing money from the bank yearly to keep its business going. Due to the global crisis and the
weakening of the Philippine economy, the company failed to pay its debts to the bank. Because of this
situation, the bank issued the company a letter of notice telling the company that if it fails to pay its debts, or
at least the interest, within a year, the bank will have no choice but to take over the company. Consequently,
the company was forced to act on it. It decided to cut down its expenses by having a mass lay-off of its
employees in order to cope with the demands of the bank. But certain groups of employees opposed the idea
so they initiated a dialogue with the management. They said that they prefer a salary below the minimum
wage rather than to lose their jobs especially in those times. However, the management told them that this is
against the law and that the company might face a criminal offense. Still the employees continued to plead
until the company gave in. As a consequence, they told the employees that they would have to sign a
document stating that they actually received the right wage. It is to appear that the company is paying the
right amount of wage to the employee.
Guide Questions:
1. Clearly the company will violate the law if it allowed its employees to receive the wage below the
minimum that the law requires. Is this decision morally correct? Why or why not?
2. The employees insisted on what was legally wrong, is this action morally justified?

Case 2: Religion in the Workplace

A woman was working a head nurse at a clinic that employed about 20 people. The owner and
manager are members of a religious cult. During business hours, everything seemed normal, but during the
two-hour lunch break, all the employees have to go to the rooftop and attend in-house teachings. These
courses encompass everything from communication skills to office efficiency. They were all designed by a
man who founded a religious cult of which the owner was a member. Granted that they were business
seminars, staff members and employees including the head nurse felt those teachings were heavily colored
with religious influences. They had to understand every word as an important key in learning lessons.
However, most of the words could not be understood because they cannot be found in the dictionaries.
Whenever she would ask her boss about a word, they would usually end up discussing the cult leader’s works
and eventually she would have to read paragraphs out of the religious teachings to fully understand
everything. She felt as though she was being brainwashed but could not complain because she loved her
work.
Questions:
1. What is the main ethical issue in this case?
2. Is it morally right to business owners to impose their religious orientations on their employees? Why
or why not? Explain your answer.
3. Is religious discrimination unethical? Explain your answer.
Reminders:

1. Use A4 size bond paper, Arial font, size 11, 1” margin all sides.
2. Title of your work will be: “Case Analysis: Fair Wage and Religion in the Workplace”
3. Double check your grammar.
4. Your work will be graded based on below criteria:

Criteria Excellent Average Needs Improvement

Identification of Excellent Average Inadequate
issues and explanation of explanation of explanation of issues
implications issues and issues and and implications.
(20 points) implications. implications. (10 points)
(20 points) (15 points)
Appropriate Choice of Some Major issues with the
justification of appropriate inconsistencies or reasoning or
approach and justification of not all parts of the explanation of
expected outcome approach and required answer. outcome, or no
(20 points) expected outcome. (25 points) reason given.
(30 points) (15 points)
Reasonable Well-written Limited explanation Minimal or non-
explanation of evaluation of of own opinion on existent explanation
opinion and opinions. current issues in of own opinion on
perspectives (20 points) managing change. current issues in
(20 points) (15 points) managing change.
( 10 points)
Sufficient length Report of more than Report is less than Minimal report.
(10 points) 500 words. 500 words. (3 points)
(10 points) (5 points)
Layout and writing Accurate grammar Some grammar Major writing or
(20 points) and spelling, and/or writing spelling issues;
structured layout. issues. layout not
(20 points) (15 points) appropriate.
(10 points)
Source: https://create.twu.ca/coursedesign/about/assessment/