Whistle-blowing

When an employee discloses wrongdoing to the employer or the public

Employees have two methods to whistle blow:

• Whistle-blowing can take place to the leaders within a company
• To a public forum like the media (Ed Snowden) or the government (Sports Direct)

What makes someone want to whistle-blow:

They don't want to break the law – Accountant and tax fraud

They know people are breaking the law – Ed Snowden

They want to stop the mistreatment of people – Sport Direct

They morally disagree with an action the business is taking – Animal Welfare

Issues for any whistle-blower

They may lose their jobs, and they may not be compensated for this. – Animal Welfare &Ed Snowden

No one believes the whistle-blower, so their colleagues outcast them – Animal Welfare

Your fellow workers lose their jobs because the company is shut down because of illegal practices

Whistle blowing and the effects on the contract between Employee and employer:

Whistle-blowing often leads to an individual breaking this contract

Case studies:

Sports Direct: A Whistle-blower reveals common practices found in sports direct to the government, this was investigated by the Business, Innovation and Skills Committee. The complaints were as follows: (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-derbyshire-36855374)

• The underpayment of couriers for some deliveries. - The delivery company (Hermes) pays two rates for delivery: one rate for a "packet", a small, light item weighing under a kilogram, and another, higher rate for heavier "parcels". Sport Direct would call larger, heavier goods "packets" Recent examples include a bicycle and a packet that weighed over 10kg sent as packets.
• Poor working conditions Some workers were paid less than the national minimum wage. Staff were also being penalized for matters such as taking a short break to drink water and for taking time off work when ill. Each would result in a strike, if workers had 6 strikes they were released.
• Zero-hours contracts – Most staff had zero-hour contracts, if they had one of these contracts they were being forced to work a further three hours without pay. If they refused, they would not be offered any hours the following day.

Ed Snowden: He was a whistle-blower who sold his story to the Guardian newspaper. The complaints were as follows:

(https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jun/09/edward-snowden-nsa-whistleblower-surveillance)

Strengths of whistleblowing

• Allows companies to be held to account.
• Allows oversight into what these powerful companies are doing and how they are doing it.
• Provides autonomy and power to individuals.

Drawbacks of whistleblowing

• Unrealistic to expect employees to whistleblow as employees could lose their jobs and relationships with colleagues could suffer.
• It could result in the company shutting down and therefore the loss of jobs.

Utilitarianism on Whistleblowing

According to act utilitarianism, the morality of whistleblowing depends on the resulting consequences.

If whistleblowing leads to a greater overall happiness than remaining silent, it is considered morally right.

Kant on Whistleblowing

In Kantian ethics, lying is categorically wrong because it cannot be universalized.

Consequently, Kant would oppose any form of deceit to conceal negative business practices.

Even if exposing the truth leads to the collapse of the business and the loss of jobs for innocent employees, it is always one's duty to tell the truth.

Kant's second formulation of the categorical imperative asserts that individuals should never be treated merely as means to an end.