Cat's Paw Retaliation Summary

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Business ethics are moral principles that guide the way a business operates (Business Case Studies LLP). Those principles allow you to determine an individual’s actions that applies to business. The ethical way of acting involves distinguishing between right and wrong and also making the right choice. (Business Case Studies LLP) The article I chose to review is written by Rich Meneghello entitled “Just (Don’t) Do It: A Warning Against ‘Cat’s Paw’ Retaliation”. This article demonstrates how businesses operate daily against workers and why a code of ethics should be instilled in business to stop unethical practices. Rich Meneghello wrote this article about a whistleblower retaliation claim filed against local sportswear company Nike adopting …show more content…

Ossanna arrived to work on his day off to help contractors access the athletics building in conjunction to complete a project. While there, he invited them, and his son to play basketball in the gym. Delgado and Treppens learned about the use of the facility by Ossanna and others implying that damages was made to the newly varnished floor by them playing on it while building was in power mode. Both Delgado and Treppens started an investigation that concluded that Ossanna had committed a breach of trust and violated Nikes code of ethics and other employment policies. Recommendation of termination was given to facilities director, Nellie St. Jacques and the final decision was made to fire Ossanna. After termination, Nike was sued by Ossanna for retaliation of alleging wrongful termination because the whistle blown about safety complaints. He lost his case at trial level, but Oregon Court of Appeals reviewed his case. Allegations against Ossanna was argued based on recommendation from Treppens and Delgado who had a retaliatory motive, not based on her decisions. The concept novel is called the cat’s paw theory. The case presented was an example of cats paw theory. This theory is named after Aesop’s Faber, a clever monkey who flatters a naïve cat into snatching chestnuts out of a fire; the monkey eats them, leaving the cat with a burnt paw and no chestnuts (Meneghello, 2018). However, employment law context refers to a situation …show more content…

As of this present day, regulations are put in place to depreciate discrimination in the workplace. According, to the article studied employers can have liability for discrimination based on a “cat’s paw” theory ruled by the U.S. Supreme Court. Based on the article, Ossanna was being harassed in the workplace for speaking up against legal measures that weren’t taken. In many instances, honesty is sometimes a conflict in a workplace. Sometimes false allegations are made towards an individual to gain power to get them terminated which happened to

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