There are many courses of action that Amazon should take to remedy
their warehouse and labor issues. First and foremost, they should listen more
to their employees about what changes they would like to see in the company and
not the changes that they “think” they want. In addition, they should
have external warehouse inspectors come in frequently to assess the safety of
workers and any changes that need to be made to that specific warehouse. Furthermore,
they cannot put profits over workers’ safety ever again, it is morally wrong. They
need to have more explicit safety protocols in place for even the worst of
circumstances. For instance, if Amazon had an efficient safety protocol in
place when they got news of the tornado warning they could’ve planned
accordingly by sending workers home.
The ethical framework behind my reasoning is the Virtue
framework. It’s simple, right and wrong are the product of character, morality
is in the actor. The executives and supervisors who are forcing workers to work
through severe weather events are immoral and don’t care about workers’ safety.
Same goes for lack of break time inside warehouses. Their sole focus is profit
instead of ensuring worker’s safety first. This is greed at its finest and is
wrong in all ways. Workers are dying and getting severely injured because of
their negligence.
The virtue framework yields better results than Teleological
and Deontological frameworks for a myriad of reasons. For instance, Teleological
framework has a flaw which is raised after asking this question. “How do you
measure utility or usefulness? Can we really accurately measure the value of a
human life”. You shouldn’t put a price on a human life in this situation because
they are human and have families to go home to after work. They shouldn’t be
risking their life lifting boxes. Furthermore, “the greatest good for the
greatest number of people” could be getting the packages processed and
delivered despite a tornado about to strike the warehouse which conflicts with
the Virtue framework. The Deontological framework could work to a certain
extent because it focuses on the idea that people should be treated with
dignity and respect. In our case, workers should be treated as human beings and
not machines. However, it is also focus on duty which can cause conflicts that
could lead to bad consequences. For instance, workers had a duty to process packages
that day, but the bad consequence was the unfortunate tornado striking the workplace.
Then you ask yourself, was the six people dying justifiable because of the
strict sales targets we had to make?
In summary, the virtue framework would only work to solve
this problem entirely. Hopefully Amazon makes efficient changes to improve
workplace safety and track metrics in the near future so they know those
changes are working. They can never put profits over workers’ safety again.
They need to do the right thing. Their time starts now to do that.
I would also use a virtue ethical framework approach for Amazon to adopt because at the end of the day, it is the executives, managers, supervisors, etc that are responsible for the worker's well-being. They have the control on whether or not the workers work in harsh conditions to generate profit for the company.
ReplyDelete"Control". That's the key word. The executives, managers, supervisors have the control to change the conditions for the workers but they choose not to because of profits. However, since there is no incentive for them to do that at the moment, it would be hard for them to acquiesce in this change
DeleteI think your approach on the issue addresses what needs to happen to make a difference for these workers. The virtue framework allows for there to be a balance and good behavior to the workers will become a habit. The company should be putting the workers first before anything else. I think that having inspectors would be a great addition for the company. Monitoring the safety of their workers will bring a positive reputation towards their company and maybe it will appeal to others to start working there too. More workers would in less hours needed for the workers, thus a better outcome overall for Amazon.
ReplyDeleteGreat analysis. The inspectors would be a great idea. They should come in at irregular intervals so Amazon doesn't try to hide shady things in their warehouse on the day they come in.
DeleteI agree with your virtue approach to this company and situation. I also feel as if inspectors would be a great idea to oversee the actions that such a company is making in its warehouses. Internal control is an important part of warehouse operations in all industries
ReplyDelete