Question

Tasty meal is one of the largest foodservice retailer having more than 200 restaurants across country. It has more than 3000 employees including staff members, waiters and chefs.

However, Tasty Meal has been criticized for

• Unfair treatment with its employees by taking too many hours of working against very low wages. Tasty Meal has no difficulty in hiring its employees on low wages due to poverty and unemployment in the region. Even some employees mentioned that the hiring process depends heavily on the hiring manager’s opinion and without clear criteria and selection procedures. It has also been criticized for taking work from children against one time meal. The situation is even worst in under developed cities of the country.
• For drivers working in a delivery process the company using a specific software to track the drivers all the time.
• The working conditions inside the company were criticized as very poor conditions, without any considerations for employee’s safety and wellbeing, and privacy.
• Meals served are mostly junk food, oily, having high calorie and could cause health issues if eaten regularly. And the company usually hiding some ingredients, and nutrition information in its products.
• Tasty Meal is not even environmental friendly. Using disposable stuff like wrapping paper, straws and tableware are comparatively cost effective but harmful to the environment, especially those which are non-recyclable. It has been criticized for over packaging and using extra wrapping papers.
• To recover its reputation the company start donating money from its net profit to NGOs to take care of the community.

Questions:

1. Identify the main stakeholders in this case?
2. Using the main theories of ethics (e.g. utilitarian, human rights, fairness and justice) to understand the ethical issues in this case?
3. Do you think treating employees in Tasty Meal is unfair? Justify. (Keep the unemployment factor, poverty and economic environment in mind).
4. Should Tasty Meal be accused for health issues by providing unhealthy food? (Note: Tasty Meal never sells its product forcefully, Customers have choices)
5. Do you think Tasty Meal is running an ethical and socially responsible business? Why or why not?
6. What are your recommendations for this company in order to be more ethical (for both internal and external stakeholders)? Be creative in this.

Answer 1

1. Stakeholders in this case are:

• Tasty Meal Management
• Employees
• Customers
• Government

2. The ethical issues, in this case, are based on the treatment of its employees with the fairness of pay and providing jobs to the deserving rather than based on the perspective of the hiring manager. Human rights are violated in Tasty Meal as is evident from the fact that the working conditions of the employees are very poor and they do not have the privacy of life. The delivery agents are being tracked all the time. The company does not follow environment-friendly practices and uses plastic heavily.

3. The treatment of employees ion Tasty Meal is unfair as they work in poor condition that is not safe and can cause grievous harm to the employees. The fact that the unemployment rate is high in the country does not take away the conditions in which the employees have to work in. Even though the workers are available at low cost due to poverty, it is the duty of 'Tasty Meal' to provide conditions that treat them as human beings.

4. The customers do come to Tasty Meal to enjoy food and it makes them happy, however, the company hides the nutritional facts and ingredients from them which causes health issues if taken for a longer duration. This act is not only unlawful but also unethical as it puts the customers' health at stake.

5. Tasty Meals is not an ethical organization and its business is not responsible. They are not being responsible for their employees, their customers, and even the environment. They do not care about the life of their employees and their customers by not providing good working conditions and by hiding the details of the ingredients from the customers.

6. Some recommendations that should help Tasty Meal are:

• Even with low salaries due to unemployment in the country, Tasty Meal must provide safe, hygienic, and respectful working conditions.
• The details of the ingredients used and their nutritional value must be disclosed to everyone.
• The company should start using environment-friendly tableware. They can stop the use of straws as it is not a mandatory inclusion. The wrapping of the food for delivery should be used economically so as to reduce wastage.