University of Suffolk: BA Business Ethical Dilemmas at Work Report

This report analyzes a case study involving ethical dilemmas within a retail company, focusing on employment law and ethical considerations. The report defines employment, differentiates between various types of workers, and explains common employment law rules, including employee rights and protections. It explores the concept of constructive dismissal, evaluating its relevance to the case. The main body of the report delves into the ethical perspectives at play, particularly concerning fraud, sexual harassment, and whistleblowing, offering advice to the employee, Linda, on how to navigate the situation. The report emphasizes the importance of whistleblowing to address fraud within the company and the protections afforded to whistleblowers under employment law. It concludes with a summary of the key findings and reinforces the importance of ethical conduct in the workplace.

Ethical dilemmas at
work

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
Define Employment and explain what type of worker Linda is. ...............................................3
Explain the common rules in relation to employment law.........................................................4
What is Constructive dismissal and advise Linda whether this was an option to consider or
not................................................................................................................................................4
Discuss this case in relation to the various ethical perspectives at play and advise Linda
accordingly..................................................................................................................................5
CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
Employment law is an important legislation which is designed to protect the rights of the
employees from being exploited. It is an umbrella of statutes which covers many different areas
such as national minimum wages Act to ensure that every worker is entitled to minimum wages,
equality Act which protects employees from discrimination, many other laws. Ethics plays an
important role as it is a study of what is wrong and right in the human behaviour (Aylott, 2018).
There comes many scenarios, when an individual faces ethical dilemma which means that when
someone goes against the personal values, morals or ethics of itself, it is the situation of ethical
dilemma. This report covers the ethical dilemma at workplace in context to a case study.
MAIN BODY
Case scenario
Linda works in local retail company from past three months and is under six month
probation period. Her daily commute to the work was the challenge as she was always late for
work. During her probation period, she discovered the major fraud by Charles, chief accountant
so she reported her suspicion to Heather, line supervisor but he ignored the matter. After few
days, when she was going to home, she saw Charles and Heather at the wine bar who were
passionately embracing each other and were socialising but she pretended that she ignored them.
Heather the next day jokingly brought the matter and make it clear that they have seen her. Both
Charles and Heather have different spouses and in order to buy the silence of Linda, they
befriended her and began to invite her to join them at wine bar. During such time, Charles also
draw the cheque of 20000 pounds in order to purchase the car as she is always late. On other
side, Charles turned up unannounced at her home with the birthday gift. Linda was shocked but
politely welcomed him. Charles offered her the ticket of both of them for holiday in Spain.
Define Employment and explain what type of worker Linda is.
Employment is referred to as the relationship between the two people which is based in the
contract where the work is usually the paid one and one party is employer who may be a company, for
profit or non profit, co operative or any other entity and the other party is employee ( Porter, 2020).
Under the United Kingdom employment law, there are mainly three types of workers and each has
different set of employment protection rights. The different kinds of workers in UK employment law are
discussed below-

 Independent contractors- It is someone who is in the business on their own account and is
responsible to make their decision as to how job must be performed. There are many advantages
to people who are independent contractors as it enjoys the tax position and the employer is free
from the most of the statutory employment protection law. Agency workers- These are engaged and employed by the employment agency which supplies
their service to hirer. These are used for the temporary engagement although he has very less
protection rights under the employment law (Thornthwaite, 2018). Employees- The majority of the workers are employees in UK of company to which they offer
their service. The basic principle of statutory and common law applies to all employees regardless
of status of employee. They get the maximum protection under the employment law as compared
to agency workers and independent contractors.
 Workers- This concept is new in UK and is derived from European law. The worker is the one
who works under the contract of employment or agree to work personally under some other
contract. A worker can be someone who is not a client or customer of business or profession
(Monkhouse and Spiro, 2020).
In context to the case study, Linda is an employee of the retail company. She has all the
protection under the employment law and is benefited to several rights under the legislation.
Explain the common rules in relation to employment law.
The employment legislation of the UK is a vast area which offers many rights to the employees
and protect them from exploitation. The common rules of employment law are discussed below-
 The employment legislation offers the rights to the employee that they must be given within 2
months of their joining, a written statement which consists of the terms and conditions of work.
This is an employment contract to which every employee is entitled.
 This law also offers many rights relating to their employment which includes minimum wages,
maximum working hours per week, paid leaves and many other (Beebeejaun, 2018).
 An employee has a right not to get unfairly dismissed from work or wrongfully dismissed from
employment. Any person who is unfairly or wrongfully dismissed may reach the employment
tribunal to claim the appropriate remedy which may include compensation, employment, etc.
 The employment law offers the right against the discrimination under the Equality Act of 2010
where employee has a right to get equal and fair treatment at the workplace and during the course
of employment (Horton, 2018).

What is Constructive dismissal and advise Linda whether this was an option to consider or not.
Constructive dismissal is the situation where an employee is forced to quit or leave the job not
just because he/ she wanted to but due to the conduct of employer. It is basically where the employer have
committed the breach of contract which entitles the employee to resign from the job in response to the
conduct of employer. This results in treating it as dismissal and the conduct of employer is a repudiatory
breach (Barber, 2019).
It is very common in organisations and the reasons for the dismissal may include the following
but list is not exhaustive-
 The employer does not pay fairly or demote the employee for no reason.
 The employer forces to accept the unreasonable changes in the working conditions.
 Lets the other workforce to bully or harass the employee. And many other (Saner, 2019).
In context to the present case scenario, Linda does not have only this option as the commission of
fraud in company was communicated by Linda to the line supervisor but no response came from that side.
On other side, Linda has an option to communicate all such fraud to the immediate next supervisor so that
she can play the role of whistle-blower and fulfil her ethical duty towards the company. Just by merely
leaving the job by way of constructive dismissal shall not bring the amicable solution for the company as
well as to her.
Discuss this case in relation to the various ethical perspectives at play and advise Linda accordingly.
In relation to the case scenario, there are many ethical perspectives in this case study which must
be taken into consideration. Some of them are illustrated below-
 The first issue is when Charles offered the cheque of 20000 pounds to Linda in order to purchase
the car which a motive to buy Linda's silence. But the main consideration in this is that the
cheque is drawn from the company's financial department and Linda has not yet purchased any
car and if she buys the car, then she must provide the invoice to the company. The cheque is not
personally drawn which shows that Charles has not attempted to purchase the silence of Linda.
 Another issue is the ticket to Spain of Linda and Heather. Under this, the main issue which arises
is relating to sexual harassment and victimisation as Heather has used his private funds for the
holiday (Collins, 2020). But this cannot come under buying the silence of Linda but is a matter
of sexual harassment as no employer can personally offer the holiday tickets to any employee.
 The third perspective is that Linda must act as whistle blower in front of administrator and
disclose all the information which she discovered regarding the fraud. The whistle blower has a
right to get protection under the statutory law of employment i.e. Employment Rights Act, 1996
and she can get protection from disclosing her name (Easdale, 2018). In order to make the

disclosure, there must be two things, first that the disclosure is in public interest and the second
that the disclosure is relating to the past, present or future wrongdoing which may fall under
category of criminal offence like fraud, miscarriage of justice, and many other.
Linda must become the whistle blower so that she can implicate the fraud to which has become
recently familiar with and by becoming the whistle blower, she will be able to protect herself as there are
many protection offered to the whistle blower under the employment law. As amended in 1998, the
Employment Rights Act now protects the employees who makes disclosure of certain kinds of
information. The administrator shall be duty obliged to protect Linda when she discloses about the fraud
done by Charles.
Advice to Linda
Rather than opting for constructive dismissal, Linda must act as whistle blower and disclose all
the information relating to fraud to the administrator. She shall get all the protection under the law of
whistle blowing and likewise she will be able to bring the fraud in the eyes of fraud. As an employee, it is
the duty of employee to disclose all the fraudulent activities which are being committed in company.
Under the Employment Rights Act, Linda shall be given protection and her duty to act in good faith shall
also be fulfilled when she will disclosure the fraud in front of administrator.
CONCLUSION
It is concluded from above report that employment is the relationship between the
employer and employees. The UK employment law provides the different rights to employees so
that they can be protected from exploitation. There are different types of worker under this law
which includes independent contractor, employees, worker, self employed, etc. the employees
get the protection under legislation for unfair and wrongful dismissal and constructive dismissal
is also one of a kind of dismissal where the employee is forced to leave the jib due to conduct of
employer. At last it is concluded that this case study identifies many ethical perspectives which
are linked to the fraud committed in the company.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Aylott, E., 2018. Employment Law: A Practical Introduction. Kogan Page Publishers.
Barber, P., 2019. The Law on the Employment of Teachers in Voluntary Schools and
Academics. Law & Just.-Christian L. Rev.. 182. p.49.
Beebeejaun, A., 2018. Unfair dismissal in the Mauritius context: a comparative
study. International Journal of Law and Management.
Collins, H., 2020. An emerging human right to protection against unjustified
dismissal. Industrial Law Journal.
Easdale, K., 2018. Swiping into a new age of employment law. Ethos: Official Publication of the
Law Society of the Australian Capital Territory. (250). pp.22-27.
Horton, R., 2018. Employment/Labour Law. Great Debates on Gender and Law.
Monkhouse, A. and Spiro, P.S., 2020. Employment Class Actions and the Gig Economy in the
US and UK, and Implications for Canada. Available at SSRN 3548317.
Porter, G., 2020. Genetic Testing, Insurance and Employment in the UK: Is the Regulatory
Regime Fit for Purpose?. In Genetic Testing and the Governance of Risk in the
Contemporary Economy (pp. 317-330). Springer, Cham.
Saner, J., 2019. Agreements in restraint of trade–enforceable or not?: employment law. Without
Prejudice. 19(5). pp.26-27.
Thornthwaite, L., 2018. Social media and dismissal: Towards a reasonable expectation of
privacy?. Journal of Industrial Relations. 60(1). pp.119-136.