Question

CASE 1

Unethical practices of food industry

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

Identify the main stakeholders in this case?

Using the main theories of ethics (e.g. utilitarian, human rights, fairness and justice) to understand the ethical issues in this case?

Do you think treating employees in Tasty Meal is unfair? Justify. (Keep the unemployment factor, poverty and economic environment in mind).?

Should Tasty Meal be accused for health issues by providing unhealthy food? (Note: Tasty Meal never sells its product forcefully, Customers have choices) ?

Do you think Tasty Meal is running an ethical and socially responsible business? Why or why not?

What are your recommendations for this company in order to be more ethical (for both internal and external stakeholders)?

Answer 1

Part 1:

The main stakeholders in this case are the management of Tasty Meals, hiring manager, waiters and chefs. The management is aware of the condition and still not taking any steps to stop it, although it has the power to stop all the ill practices. The hiring manager is responsible for all the malpractices in the hiring process as he is the one who controls it completely. The chefs are aware of the unhealthy food they make and still continue to do it. Also, the chefs too know about the bad food quality, but still continue to serve it.

Part 2:

There are various ethical issues in the given case. The outcomes of the activities the company is doing can be really disturbing in many ways. The hiring process is totally unfair, the hiring manager does as he likes the wages and working hours are all wrong for the workers. Also, hiring children is a violation of human rights. The poor conditions in the company for the workers is also injustice for the workers. The unhealthy food can lead to serious health issues in the consumers this is against utilitarianism. The environmental hazard the company is causing is a wrong under utilitarianism.

Part 3:

The unfair treatment of the employees is wrong in all ways. Even if there is poverty, unemployement, and bad economic condition it does not give the company rights to exploit the workers. Any of the given conditions can not justify the wrong behaviour of the company. The poor work conditions are also unfair as it is the responsibility of the company to provide proper working evironment for its workers.

Part 4:

The company is providing unhealthy food to the customers and also hides some of the ingredients of the food. The health issues in the consumers can be a result of more than just one reason i.e. eating Tasty Meals food. But if in any way it can be proved that the health issues in the consumers are directly or indirectly caused by Tasty Meals products then the company can accused for the same. If the food is proven to be hazardous, then the company stands responsible for this.

Part 5:

Tasty meals is clearly not running an ethically and socially responsible business. The above answers mention how the company is violating ethical practices and also mistreating the workforce and environment. The suggestion for the company are to look into the hiring practices, workplace conditions and the food preparation process. The company should also try to be more responsible towards environment. The current practices must be changed as soon as possible. And for the external stakeholders the customers should try to avoid buying from a company which not ethically sound and the workers should know their rights and not join a company that mistreats them.