For example, the company for which I am employed has become increasingly disillusioned with the lack of employees willing to work overtime at weekends. As a result and with the aid of an agency, the company has brought several workers of Polish origin to the organisation. These employees have limited contracts, receive less remuneration and are not entitled to the normal workforce privileges of ‘time and a half’ on Saturdays and ‘double time’ on Sundays. However, the early results in terms of profitability look promising and unfulfilled customer orders are now being met. This is against an offset of varying displeasure amongst the original workforce and local community, with some employees aggrieved over the loss of overtime and potential job vacancies for local friends and family.
As highlighted above, many firms are employing larger numbers of temporary, part-time, casual and agency workers. This is part due to their high availability under the new ‘flexible labour markets’ created by the EU and government deregulation in the mid 1990’s. These workers have very little say in the way the company is run due to the ease in which they can be ‘hired and fired’. Couple this with share incentive schemes for managers (resulting in increased emphasis on profits), the present and future scenario appears one where ethical duties and less powerful stakeholders are given very little consideration or in fact their opinions dismissed!
A higher emphasis must also be placed on organisations to provide precise and honest information, particularly were it affects the public good. Extreme penalties must be inflicted on those who flaunt the truth if repeats of the Enron scandal are to be avoided. Firms cannot simply be content with providing the information the clients want to hear when the actuality is a far different scenario. Perhaps a part solution to this would be for every