Employees and the Corporation

1
(No Transcript)
2
Employees and the Corporation
Chapter
18

• The Employment Relationship
• Workplace Rights
• Privacy in the Workplace
• Whistle-Blowing and Free Speech in the Workplace
• Working Conditions Around the World
• Employees as Corporate Stakeholders

3
Figure 18.1
Rights and duties of employees and employers
Employee rights/Employer duties
Employee duties/Employer rights

• Right to organize and bargain
• Safe and healthy workplace
• Privacy
• Discipline fairly and justly applied
• To blow the whistle
• Equal employment opportunity
• To be treated with respect for
• fundamental human rights

• No drug or alcohol abuse
• No actions that would
• endanger others
• To treat others with respect and
• without harassment of any kind
• Honesty appropriate disclosure
• Loyalty and commitment
• Respect for employers property and
• intellectual capital

4
The right to a secure job

• Restrictions on employers
• An employer may not fire a worker because of
  race, gender, religion, national origin, age, or
  disability.
• An employer may not fire a worker if this would
  constitute a violation of public policy, as
  determined by the courts.
• An employer may not fire a worker if, in doing
  so, it would violate the Worker Adjustment
  Retraining Notification Act.
• An employer may not fire a worker if this would
  violate an implied contract, such as a verbal
  promise, or basic rules of fair dealing.

5
Privacy in the workplace Issues

• Electronic monitoring
• Companies can gather, store, and monitor
  information about employees activities. This
  may be at odds with an employees right to
  privacy.
• Romance in the workplace
• If office romance goes sour, one of the people
  may sue, charging sexual harassment. When one
  person in a relationship is in a position of
  authority, s/he may be biased in an evaluation of
  the others work.
• Employee drug use and testing
• Two-thirds of companies test employees or job
  applicants for drugs.

6
Privacy in the workplace Issues (continued)

• Alcohol abuse at work
• U.S. businesses lose an estimated 67 billion
  per year in reduced productivity directly related
  to alcohol abuse.
• Employee theft and honesty testing
• The U.S. Department of Commerce estimates that
  employee theft of cash, merchandise, and property
  costs businesses 40 billion to 50 billion a
  year.

7
Drug testing

• Drug testing is used on three occasions
• Pre-employment screeningSome companies test all
  job applicants or selected applicants before
  hiring.
• Random testing of employeesIn many companies,
  workers in particular job categories or levels
  are eligible for screening at any time.
• Testing for causeThis test occurs when an
  employee is believed to be impaired by drugs and
  unfit for work.

8
Pros and cons of employee drug testing
Figure 18.2

• Arguments Favoring Employee Drug Testing
• Cooperates with U.S. War on Drugs campaign
• Improves employee productivity
• Promotes safety in the workplace
• Decreases employee theft and absenteeism
• Reduces health and insurance costs

• Arguments Opposing Employee Drug Testing
• Invades an employees privacy
• Violates an employees right to due process
• May be unrelated to job performance
• May be used as a method of employee
  discrimination
• Lowers employee morale
• Conflicts with company values of honesty and
  trust
• May yield unreliable test results
• Ignores effects of prescription drugs, alcohol,
  and over-the-counter drugs
• Drug use an insignificant problem for some
  companies

9
Whistle-blowing

• Whistle-blowing
• When an employee believes his or her employer
  has done something wrong or harmful to the
  public, and he or she reports alleged
  organizational misconduct to the media,
  government, or high-level company officials.

10
Conditions for whistle-blowing

• The unreported act would do serious and
  considerable
• harm to the public.
• Once such an act has been identified, the
  employee has
• reported the act to his or her immediate
  supervisor and has
• made their moral concern known.
• If the immediate supervisor does nothing, the
  employee has
• tried other internal pathways for reporting
  the problem.

11
Fair labor standards

• Approaches to establish fair labor standards for
  multinational corporations
• Voluntary corporate codes of conduct
• Non-governmental organizations labor codes
• Industry-wide labor codes