Unethical Labor Practices: A Case Study of Taco Bell

1. Taco Bell in Portland was found guilty of exploitation of workers (violating their State’s Labour Laws). Exploiting workers is unethical behaviour, because businesses often choose to maximise their profits for the owners at the expense of their workers. Taco Bell faced charges of violating labour laws. They failed to pay employees for working overtime, they failed to pay their full payment after they were let go, some employees had to work through their lunch time etcetera (ALA Editor, 2010). Companies tend to do the above to keep their reputation and/or to maximise profits.
2. Obedience is a factor that is caused by an authority figure making unethical decisions or demands, and others follow his or her orders because they are an authority

figure. If we look at the Taco Bell saga, one employee, Carlos, confronted the company because he did not agree with his working terms and was terminated (Mundy, 2010). He soon went to human resources who ignored his issue even though he presented them with proof. The human resource team thought that the company made the right decision and chose to ignore the fact that it was unethical. This in turn created the Lucifer effect. The Lucifer effect is when “even good people, start down the slippery slope of evil” (Zimbardo, 2007). This is the ability of a good person to do evil things. Human resources were influenced by the company’s decision to let Carlos go and therefore acted unethical by giving in to social pressure. Opinions and social pressure is created when people shift their views to that of the authority, even though the decisions are contrary to their own. Company managers testified that they were following orders given to them by a higher employee (Entrepreneur, 2001). The bystander apathy simply means not helping someone because of the presence of others. "A few co-workers complained to me about their long hours without getting overtime pay, but they were too afraid of retaliation; they are afraid of losing their job” (Mundy, 2010), employees watched one another suffering, but no one ever said anything.