In response to @Joey Tung’s Post:
In her post, Joey stated her thoughts toward a news article this August: Becoming Green, a Welsh call centre, had brought in cheap prison labour – paying its prisoner workers for only £3 a day [1]. This in term relates to the issue of Business Ethics in which certain companies act in their own interest to take advantage over vulnerable people: the prisoners. By hiring cheap labour into the workforce, Becoming Green had also laid off some of its original workers who required higher wages [2].
Although from short term perspective, the company seemed to have gained some advantage as this had reduced some variable wages cost for the company. Yet, judging from long term, this may not be the best approach for several reasons:
1. The company’s actions might disturb its own workforce and stir up disloyalty and complaints within the organization by replacing their workers with cheap labour[3]. The fact that prisoners of various crimes are taken in to work alongside others will create distrust and insecurity; therefore, leading to employees’ unwillingness to go to work.
2. As well, the company’s image would be threatened with immoral issues and thus leading to decrease of customers. Regular callers would also feel insecure because they would not know if they can trust the people they are calling.
For these reasons, the company’s actions would start to decline in long term, despite temporary advantage.
Sources:
[1]http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/aug/08/prisoners-call-centre-fired-staff
[2]http://boingboing.net/2012/08/08/call-centre-brings-in-prison-l.html
[3]http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-19184054
Image Source:
http://www.becominggreen.co/
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