Essay: Retail Industry's Employment Practices Face Regulatory Scrutiny.

Defining and framing the issue

Discuss About The Employment Practices Increased Regulatory.

The business issue in focus is the unethical employment practices and the increased regulatory scrutiny in the retail industry. Ethics are the business policies that guides and governs the business operations to prevent controversial issues such as unethical employment practices which is the business question that shall be discussed in this context(Volume 31, Issue 2/3 — Complete Issue, 2012).  The unethical practice that was unveiled in the recent past days is the exploitation of workers the retail industry, as much as it’s a problem that covered the retail industry in general it should be noted that Pay n Carry company falls under this category which means that in one way or another, the company is affected or falls in the risk of becoming a victim of such unethical behavior in future. Exploitation of workers comes in when a company pays the workers less than what they actually deserve and other unfair treatment of workers for the benefits of the company (Issue Information, 2017). Regulatory scrutiny is done by a board that offers advice to the company and it has been increased especially in the retail industry under which Pay n Carry is under.  Ethics should be considered in any business operations as any unethical practice can easily ruin the reputation of a business.  The company may end up losing more than what it wanted to gain because the workers will no longer be working out of passion but just for the sake of getting paid, for maximum production, the company depends on the passion and dedication of its employees(CIBER SPECIAL ISSUE: THE BUSINESS OF PEACE, 2016). They may even choose to leave their jobs and it may be difficult to find other workers as everyone does not work where there is a lot of exploitation. Ethics in any business depend on the power of the management to keep the good behavior and therefore, the management is going to concentrate on its role of maintaining the business ethics.

• The reason that may have resulted to the exploitation of works is capitalism. This is a situation where the economic system in an industry is controlled and run from profit purposes by the private owners of businesses and not the government. Capitalist system often leads to exploitation of workers due to the nature of the business conditions  that are not regulated by the government which would have put into consideration the workers, all that is put in consideration in such a system is profit making(Issue Information, 2017).  Without government regulations, it may lead to a highly competitive and exploitative system hence; those people working shall be used for maximum yields under minimum pay. For instance, a worker may have to carry out a task meant for three, unfavorable conditions and more working hours than the required maximum.
• Another reason may be poverty among people that they are so desperate for jobs and therefore can do anything to get money however little it could be (Issue Information, 2018). The employers take advantage of such situations and use them more than they get paid for or put them under unfavorable working conditions.
• Managements currently want to compete with other similar businesses and appear successful more than any other which leads them to the misuse of workers; this can be another reason for unethical employment practice within organizations.  
• Karl Marx’s labour theory of value and exploitation under capitalism states that under capitalism, all the value depends on the labour, that if the labour sector stopped at once, say the laborers go for a strike, and production would have to stop until they come back. therefore, the workers have to be used to gain the surplus in the name of profits that is later used to boost the economy, the more people work, the higher the production. With this theory, it explains why employers exploit workers so as to gain more profits because it is perceived that the only way for this is through labour (Issue Information - Copyright page, 2016).

Since Pay n Carry is business that operates with Franchisees as the main partners and important stakeholders, I will include the managers in charge of the different businesses so that we can come up with ways that can help the company avoid workers exploitation in future (Jung, 2018). Forced and child labour is one of the unethical practices that have been reported in the retail industry. To prevent it, I will work with all partners of Pay n Carry to make sure that those who are employed to work are above the required age according to the law. Each worker should be having a national identification card which is an indication that the person is old enough to become an employee.  According to the human rights, a person has freedom to work voluntarily without being forced or threatened. Sometimes, people are blackmailed such that they have no other option than to work against their will, this is forced labour. I will therefore make sure that whoever gets employed in the company has passed the necessary steps such as application for the job and an interview; with this the employees will have wanted to work in the company without anyone forcing them. Anyone found trying to force people to work in the company for their own benefits shall face hard punishments in the court of law (Resnicoff, 2013). Overworking people may be as a result of the less production they when they work for normal hours; the main reason for little production by workers is lack of motivation. Hard working employees shall receive presents in different forms; this will help motivate other so that each and every person works hard in the line of work so that at the end of the day, good work shall have been done without having to force them to work for more hours.  In all working areas, workers shall be provided with proper working conditions and if wherever they work from makes them face a certain risk; they shall be insured and also protected from danger by the company.  As much as Marx’s theory states that production depends on the labour, it is important to note that there are other factors that need to be incorporated such as the capital; therefore, I will make sure that the company provides enough capital for maximum production without exploiting workers (Wrye, 2012).

Conclusion

In conclusion, worker exploitation is an unethical practice that is common among many employers especially if under the system of capitalism. The worker goes to a loss while the employers get more profits at the expense of the working class (Strauss and McGrath, 2017). Capitalism as described can be considered a monster but it’s not actually as terrible as it appears the growing economy in many countries and industries can be attributed to this system whereby the termed ‘unhealthy’ competition and exploitation for maximum yields actually leads to more production which in turn helps build the economy (Issue Information, 2017).  It may not be so easy to eradicate worker exploitation due to competitions among businesses, as they are busy competing with each other to grab larger markets and get more profits, the worker shall have to be used more and paid less so that the surplus money can be used to improve the business and its capital. Ethical practices depend on the management of an organization, therefore, the manager or anyone in charge should adhere to the rules and regulations of the company as it flows al the to the junior staff members(Issue Information, 2017)

1. Workers without someone to assemble all factors such as the capital market and provide favorable environment is useless. Enough capital, market availability and a nice environment will lead to more profits without worker exploitation. As company, Pay n Carry should provide increase the amount of money invested as the capital, use safe and modern equipment that can provide more yields without straining workers to work in an environment where what is needed for production is unavailable or very little compared to the results expected from them.
2. The second thing is that the mother company should ensure that there is a good relationship with is franchises who happen to be the priority number one for such a franchise business. Any differences or misunderstanding should be solved and a fair agreement reached at within one year from now to create room for unity which will then lead to prosperity in the coming years. There should be corporation among them so that the set rules and regulations can be applied to all branches owned by the franchisees.
3. To avoid biased treatment of workers, the company management should set standard rules for all employees so that none of them gets favors more than others even if he or she has a close relation to the senior management.

References

CIBER SPECIAL ISSUE: THE BUSINESS OF PEACE. (2016). Business Horizons, 59(5), p.v.

Issue Information - Copyright page.(2016). Thunderbird International Business Review, 58(3), pp.182-182.

Issue Information. (2017). Thunderbird International Business Review, 59(3), pp.455-456.

Issue Information. (2017). Thunderbird International Business Review, 59(3), pp.253-254.

Issue Information. (2018). Journal of Small Business Management, 56, pp.1-4.

Jung, Y. (2018). Already, But Not Yet: Ending Unethical Practices in Authorship. Psychiatry Investigation, 15(4), pp.335-335.

Resnicoff, S. (2013).The Causes and Cures of Unethical Business Practices – A Jewish Perspective.SSRN Electronic Journal.

Strauss, K. and McGrath, S. (2017). Temporary migration, precarious employment and unfree labour relations: Exploring the ‘continuum of exploitation’ in Canada’s Temporary Foreign Worker Program. Geoforum, 78, pp.199-208.

Volume 31, Issue 2/3 — Complete Issue. (2012). Business Valuation Review, 31(2-3), pp.c1-c100.

Wrye, J. (2012). Boss and Worker: An Active-Learning Exercise in Exploitation and Class Antagonism. College Teaching, 60(4), pp.140-146.