Business Ethics: Amazon Case Study on Unethical Labor Practices

This report provides an in-depth analysis of an ethical case study involving Amazon's labor practices. The report begins with an introduction and background of the case, focusing on the experiences of Amazon warehouse workers in Pennsylvania. It identifies key stakeholders, including employees, customers, and sellers, and explores how each group was affected by the company's actions. The core of the report analyzes the case through the lens of three ethical theories: utilitarianism, Kantianism, and virtue theory. The analysis reveals that Amazon's practices, such as demanding long hours, constant surveillance, and inadequate compensation, are ethically questionable. The report concludes by discussing the implications of these unethical practices and their impact on ethical standards. The assignment includes references to academic journals and industry sources. The report provides a comprehensive understanding of the ethical issues at Amazon.

Running Head: Business Ethics
Business Ethics
Amazon Unethical Case Study

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Business Ethics
Contents
Introduction and Background......................................................................................................................2
Stakeholders or Actors of the case study....................................................................................................2
Ethical Theories...........................................................................................................................................3
Utilitarianism...........................................................................................................................................3
Kantianism...............................................................................................................................................3
Virtue Theory...........................................................................................................................................3
References...................................................................................................................................................5

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Introduction and Background
Amazon is a very well known firm across the world. It sells absolutely everything through its
Ecommerce business. In the year 2012, some of the workers came forward to discuss their
experiences if working with Amazon in the warehouse located in Breinigsville, Pennsylvania.
Those were the former employees of the company. There was a man named Neal Heimbach who
filed the case lawsuits against Amazon (Umbro, 2018). The major complaint was that Amazon
failed to reimburse the workers who worked in Amazon on hourly basis for the time they spent
waiting in the security check lines everyday at the end of their shifts and in the lunch breaks.
This time was usually noted as 20 minutes per day. Every employee got a 15 minute break yet
they claimed that the supervisors continuously monitored them with the help of the computer
screens.
Stakeholders or Actors of the case study
The stakeholders or the actors in the case are employees and their family, users and the sellers of
Amazon. The employees were the most affected stakeholders. They were the ones who were
treated unethically directly (Ghosh, 2018). Due to this some of the employees also suffered from
the medical conditions by working in the warehouses and because of such medical conditions,
their families were also impacted.
Other stakeholders are the customers. However the customers would never come to know as to
what exactly went in the warehouses. Yet the employees were the ones who packed the packages
and the customers were being affected by the whole process because the contribution of the
employees was half hearted and the process of delivering and packaging was taking longer than
usual (Agerholm, 2017).
Other stakeholders are the sellers. People who sell the items on Amazon were also getting
connected to the customers and the employees too.

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Ethical Theories
There are three theories which apply to this unethical case of Amazon. They are:
Utilitarianism
According to this theory, the major aim of the firm is to increase the happiness in oneself as well
as in others. Hence, the top most aim is to increase the happiness for all the stakeholders who are
linked with the firm directly or indirectly. There was no happiness displayed by the employees in
the warehouses. It can be said that making more money like 11 dollars per hour would make the
employee happy and satisfied yet most of the employees claimed that the money earned was not
worth as they had no time to think of spending it wisely. They were too busy in that warehouse.
Hence, money which was given to the employees too was not making them happy in the long
run. On the whole, Amazon easily could have saved itself from all the lawsuits only if they
would have worked ethically. Working ethically and keeping the employees happy would have
made the company look good and also would have been better for all the stakeholders
(Eggleston, 2012).
Kantianism
According to this theory, the action is believed allowable or non allowable according to the
category imperative and the formula of Humanity that states that using people for getting
whatever a firm wants is incorrect and unethical because it means employees are being exploited.
This is the theory about Goodwill and Logic (Agbude et al., 2015). The firm did fail in the
category imperative due to the hiring of the contract basis workers while the holidays were going
on and then fired them just when the work was finished. In Addition to that, the firm also
expected to pack the boxes more than the capacity of the employees. This was unreasonable.
Virtue Theory
This theory says that logic or rationality is what makes and displays various characteristics of the
people. This theory has four virtues: Courage, Integrity, temperance and Justice. The firm did not

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have any of the virtues. The firm was not courageous as they made the employees work in bad
conditions. Integrity was not present in their relation with employees as according to the firm the
short breaks were wrong. No temperance was there as they want the employees to pack more
boxes which the employee’s capacity did not allow (Zyl, 2005). No Justice was there because
they were paid more money but then they were asked to spend almost whole day in the
warehouse. Amazon also lied to the media about it saying that there is nothing wrong in their
working conditions and the employees are getting paid a very high price still.

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References
Agbude, G.A., Ogunwede, J.K. & Agbude, J.G., 2015. Kant’s Categorical Imperative and the
“Business” of Profit Maximization: The Quest for Service Paradigm. Technology and
Investment, 6, pp.1-11.
Agerholm, H., 2017. Amazon workers working 55-hour weeks and so exhausted by targets they
'fall asleep standing up'. [Online] Available at: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-
news/amazon-workers-working-hours-weeks-conditions-targets-online-shopping-delivery-
a8079111.html [Accessed 16 October 2018].
Eggleston, B., 2012. Utilitarianism. Encyclopedia of Applied Ethics, 4, pp.452-58.
Ghosh, S., 2018. Peeing in trash cans, constant surveillance, and asthma attacks on the job:
Amazon workers tell us their warehouse horror stories. [Online] Available at:
https://www.businessinsider.in/Peeing-in-trash-cans-constant-surveillance-and-asthma-attacks-
on-the-job-Amazon-workers-tell-us-their-warehouse-horror-stories/articleshow/64015295.cms
[Accessed 16 October 2018].
Umbro, D., 2018. What it's really like to work at Amazon, according to employees. [Online]
Available at: https://www.businessinsider.in/What-its-really-like-to-work-at-Amazon-according-
to-employees/articleshow/62762659.cms [Accessed 16 October 2018].
Zyl, L.V., 2005. Virtue Theory and Applied Ethics. South African Journal of Philosophy, 21(2).

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