Assume that you are the plant manager for a manufacturing company. For years, th
ID: 430882 • Letter: A
Question
Assume that you are the plant manager for a manufacturing company. For years, the firm’s low-wage workers have complained about their pay and general working conditions. They have presented you with a list of demands and have signed a petition supporting their demands as well as threatened to quit if their demands are not met. You know the following:
• Another low-wage manufacturer in the area is about to close down
• The corporation that owns the manufacturing company is about to implement a reduction strategy
• General employment rates are also growing
?You have two choices:
1. Meet with all of the workers, inform them of the things that he or she knows, and advise them to back off their demands.
2. Do nothing and see what happens. This may result in some (but not all) of the workers quitting.
• What are the ethical issues in this situation?
• What are the basic arguments for each course of action?
Explanation / Answer
1. In the first case it would be better to have a communication with the workers and also make them aware that this will be conveyed to the management and the management will also be pushed to increase the pay of the workers and look at the demands that they have presented as well. As they have been paid low for quite some time now, ethically the Management needs to take actions for the betterment of the situation of the workers or else it may not work out for the organization.
2. If no action is taken then there may be some employees who may quite and the organization can again hire from the pool of workers who will be unemployed as one of the organizations are on the verge of closing diwn. This action is not ethical at all because if an organization just to have a better profit margin acts like this by not keeping it's employees satisfied, it would be difficult for the organization to sustain in the industry and do good as well. This will gradually make the organization a place not suitable to work for because if such unethical measures being adopted.