Compliance with Laws, Rules, and Regulations is, to me, the most important area in a company’s code of conduct. Complying with laws, rules, and regulations includes preventing harassment and discrimination, improper payments, and environmental compliance. When companies are in compliance they are not putting themselves at risk of huge fines, lawsuits, and negativity towards their company. In 2007, the Rosen family filed a lawsuit against Ruby Tuesdays, Inc. for discrimination against their religious beliefs. They believed that an employee that worked in the restaurant in Athens, Ohio had intentionally burnt a swastika into the bottom of the bowl that their food was served in. They believed that the intent stemmed from one of the cooks seeing the Rosen daughter, whom wore a necklace displaying a Star of David, on the way to the bathroom. They believed that in knowing that they were Jewish, the cook intentionally discriminated against their religious beliefs. This family suffered emotional distress due to this instance. That is just an example of what can happen if a company does not train their employees to be ethically responsible. This also means complying with the rules for any form of harassment or discrimination against your co-workers. Improper payments refers to taking bribes or kickbacks as a payment for a service within a company. To me, this is just morally and ethically wrong. Environmental compliance refers to being committed to eliminating hazards within the workplace and providing a safe and healthy work environment. These are significant to their company because they don’t want the negativity that can
References: www.rubytuesday.com/content/files/cbcethics.pdf www.onpointnews.com/docs/swastika.pdf www.grouponworks.com/merchant-blog/marketing/four-easy-ways-to-build-customer-relationships-restaurant/