Question

Initially, some of the worst COVID hotspots were in meatpacking plants. The chilled indoor environment and close working conditions led to the disastrous spread of the virus, and plants tried to stay open during outbreaks, with some even limiting testing of their employees.

(a) What kinds of norms did meatpacking plants violate? How would they know which norms to follow?

(b) What caused plants to make the decision to continue endangering their workers? Who made those decisions, and what incentives did they face? Is there a way to change those incentives?

(c) Were there any related lapses in ethics in the government or other related firms?

Answer 1

a. The firms violated the basic labour protection norms and prioritised incentive for profit generation over health and security of the labours. The meat packing industry must have followed the standard health norms providing the labours with workable conditions where the health is not compromised. These norms are present in the labour protection acts prevalent in the society , enforced by the govt , making sure minimum standard of working is present.

b. The incentive for the firms to continue making their workers in hazardous conditions was ,generation of profits. The firms today are profit orientated. Not only in such conditions but labour rights for minimum wages is also a difficult stand to be placed in the working environment , especially in countries like china , where labour is cheap.

One of the ways to change this is involvement of international organisation like United Nations , who can actually provide world wide guidelines regarding mandating the minimum wages with respect to country's money value. Also the local govt plays a very important role in ensuring labour protection in country.

c. Yes , there was an obvious lapse in the ethics of govt and other related firms. First the govt failed to retrain the virus and make people aware of it's transmission rate in time. They failed to provide efficient environment for the labour to work in . And finally the firm and related firms failed to recognise that profit generation can be out on hold and life of employed workers is more important.

There is both an ethical lapse and lapse in providing the basic structure which was sustainable for the labours to work in .