Moral Rights in the Workplace Chapter Six

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Moral Rights in the WorkplaceChapter Six

• Jerry Estenson

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Framework

• Work is important and a highly valued human
  activity because it is necessary to acquire other
  central human goods.
• Work and moral rights are connected because
  opportunities to work can be jeopardized by the
  actions of others.

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Rights in the work place

• Remember rights cannot be bought, sold, or
  forcibly taken away
• Legal
• Derived from legislation and judicial rulings
• Contractual
• Negotiated in good faith or a result of a policy
  or procedure
• Respect owed human beings. This is the domain of
  moral rights in the workplace
• Freedom
• Equality
• Autonomy

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The rights equation

• Greater the rights Greater the obligation

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Right to work

• First definition is based on employee requirement
  to join a union
• This is done to eliminate free rider (those who
  enjoy the benefit without contributing)
• Collective bargaining view as way to balance
  power in the workplace

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Right to work - Macro

• Basis for Catholic Church and UN declaration of
  work as a human right
• Means to an end
• Expression of a meaningful human life

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Who should provide jobs?

• Private Industry and the free market
• Government
• Safety Net

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Private Industry

• Who should they be required to hire?
• How long should they be required to employ?
• At what rate should workers be paid?
• What about property rights of employers?

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Government

• Employer of Last Resort
• Government employment drains from the public

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Safety Net

• Unemployment Insurance
• Tax Incentives to hire folks on welfare

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Rights in the Workplace

• Employment at will
• Trade off for the elimination of slavery and
  indentured servitude
• Employee free to quit employer free to fire for
• Good cause, for no cause, or even for cause
  morally wrong.

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Changes in the At Will Doctrine

• Never applied to government workers
• Civil rights protections
• Union activity protections
• OSHA whistle blowing
• Whistle blowing
• Employee handbooks as implied contracts
• Practices such as payment of bonuses as handled
  in the past

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Termination of employment

• Magna Carta doctrine limit the authority of the
  King
• Due process required
• Seen as inefficient
• Just cause required
• All an attempt to balance power in the workplace.
  Employees cannot be bought and sold.

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Participatory Decision Making

• Who has authority
• Authority is given with consent of those governed
• McCall Employees should be treated as
  autonomous decision makers free of coercive
  interference by others. Human dignity is tied to
  the ability of humans to guide their own life and
  activities.

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Benefits of Participation

• Reduces possibility of alienenatation
• Reduces burnout
• Workers may not have specific expertise but do
  have other valuable knowledge
• May appear inefficient but creates a high degree
  of buy in and quick execution

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Health and Safety

• Who determines the degree of risk a worker should
  take?
• The individual
• Experts
• Senior Managers
• Government
• Who has perfect knowledge?
• Who is thinking beyond first generation solutions
  to a problem?

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Privacy in the workplace

• Right to be left alone within a personal zone of
  solitude
• Right to control information about oneself
• Important because it establishes boundaries
• Workplace violations
• Infringes on personal decisions that are
  irrelevant to work contract
• Personal information that is irrelevant to work
  contract that is collected, stored or used
  without consent
• Polygraphs, drug tests, surveillance, background
  checks, psychological tests

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Break Down our options in the Discussion Case

• Right involved
• Actors involved
• Interest of the actors
• Ethical recommendation

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What rights are in jeopardy

• Urine Test
• Commission payment
• Abortion discussion
• HIV
• Email
• Psychological test
• Exposure to hazardous material