Business Ethical Recommendations

Good Recommendations The recommendations made by the Human Rights Watch group are good steps in increasing the safety for workers in the meat packing industry. Workers of any industry deserve to work in the safest work environment available and should be afforded to work with and use safe equipment and tools. They also should be taught to know the hazards involved with their taskings. Employers have a responsibility to ensure these elements of safety occur in the workplace. The problem is that it usually comes at a high price, cutting profits. So some employers choose to ignore the safety issues possibly taking advantage of an immigrant’s illegal status for their silence. The immigrants are human and deserving of the basic human rights. The Human Rights Watch group helps to fight to ensure employers provide an adequately safe environment for their employees to work in. The breakdown of the recommendations include: “New federal and state laws to reduce production line speeds. Stronger state regulations to halt underreporting of injuries. Stronger worker compensation laws and enforcement of anti-retaliation laws. U.S. labor law compliance with international standards on workers’ freedom of association. New laws ensuring workers’ safety regardless of their immigration status.” (Gonzalez, “Group criticizes packers Meat industry officials dismiss Human Rights Watch report Recommendations; [Iowa, Nebraska Edition]”, par. 3) The responsibility for a safe work environment lies on the shoulders of the employer. However US history has shown that many employers have had little concern for the workers but only for the profit. At the beginning of the 20th century the death rate for miners was extremely high. In a four year period between 1911 and 1915 the average deaths per year were 3329 people. (“Improvements in workplace safety--United States, 1900-1999”, par 6.) The mining companies failed to take steps to ensure a safe work environment was in place.

Bibliography: Anonymous, “Improvements in workplace safety--United States, 1900-1999.” MMWR