Business Law and Ethics: The Bhopal Gas Tragedy and Unethical Behavior of Union Carbide

Business Law and
Ethics

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
Bhopal Gas Tragedy...............................................................................................................3
Ethics in business...................................................................................................................4
Ethical issues that lead to Bhopal Gas Tragedy.....................................................................4
Factors contributed to unethical issues...................................................................................5
Corporate social responsibility (CSR)....................................................................................5
Corporate social responsibility (CSR) in context of Bhopal gas Tragedy.............................6
Recommendations to solving unethical issues.......................................................................6
CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
Business laws are those which helps a company or an organisation in defining standards
that relates to the behaviour which is expected out of a company. For a company it is very
important that it practice ethics. Business ethics are the rules and regulations that govern
business and its activities by helping a company in determining what is right or wrong which a
company is doing at workplace (Bhattacharya, 2020). The purpose of ethics in any business is to
make sure that the company is consistent with its moral attitude. Ethics also ensures that every
individual related to the company especially its employees, are treated with respect and there
exist honesty and fairness in the business.
This report explains the major industrial gas leak disaster that took place in Bhopal,
Madhya Pradesh, India. It also explains about the unethical behaviour and practices of the parent
company 'Union carbide' which was situated in United states (US). The report also explains
business ethics, corporate social responsibility and approaches necessary to be adopted by a
company in Business ethics with relation to the Union carbide Company.
MAIN BODY
Bhopal Gas Tragedy
The world famous industrial Catastrophes that ever took place is popularly known as
“The Bhopal gas Tragedy”. This is considered as the major gas leak incident that ever happened
in history. This disaster happened in the year 1984 at the company named: “Union carbine India
Limited” i.e. UCIL which is a pesticide plant situated in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India. The
parent company of the UCIL was situated in United States (US) under the name Union Carbide
Company i.e. UCC. There was a major gas leak on the 3rd of December in the year 1984. The gas
which leaked and caused the disaster was MIC i.e. Methyl Isocyanate.
The UCIL plant at Bhopal was indulge in producing pesticides for which they required
MIC gas as its main gas. The company was all the time trying to cut the cost and for that they
were not investing in the maintenance and repair work of the machinery and other equipments.
This happened as the cooling component in the company was not working and the backup was
also not repaired by the company (Sinha and Neeraj Jha, 2020). This resulted in the leakage of
the gas which started to cause burning sensation in the eyes and body of the people working at
the plant. The gas when came in contact with the water of the nearby water tank, the mixture it