Introduction
The PharmaCare pharmaceuticals is one of the most well-known and distinguished companies that has had many success in the world. It is well known to have a good reputation for being caring, good services, well-organized thus producing products of high quality and ethical. The company is known for their generosity especially to the people with low income. They provide free discounts for the customers. Due to their success, they also strive to help those students who are in need of scholarships. The company has also formed the We CARE initiative, which is a commitment that strives to help conserve the environment. However, all their achievements throughout the years came into questions after they did a project in Colberia Africa. In the project, they have broken a number of laws especially towards the environment and have had ethical issues.
The PharmaCARE Company that is based in New Jersey started a manufacturing facility in Africa a place called Colberia. Colberia is well known for the indigenous people to have their own way of curing through traditional medicine. The people for PharmaCARE are able to get the way the medicine is formulated freely from the people and those working in the harvesting plants are willing to work for less money. The reason why they are able to work for less money is that in their region most people live in huts and in areas where access of water or electricity is not an issue or needed. The problem arises when people see how the executives from the company live lavish lifestyles yet they are underpaying the workers who walk for five miles or more for harvesting the plants needed by the company.
The stakeholders in the company are the group of people or companies that show a great interest in the organization and how it is fairing. The objectives, strategies and policies that occur in the organization have a great impact on the stakeholders because of the shares they have in the company (Panjabikesan, 2010). The other stakeholders in the company include the workers from PharmaCARE and the people employees from the community of Colberia.
Ethical issues
The people in the region are known to be underpaid especially when one looks at the kind of work they are doing. Most of the workers who are living in America are usually given good salaries but for the people in Colberia receive penny changes. According to personal moral or ethical compass, it is very clear that this is unfair for the people in Colberia (Waller, 1995). The fact that those people are described to be poor and walk for five miles from the harvest plants while sometimes carrying a bag weighing about fifty pounds. This is a human right issue because the people are being overworked and under paid (Sullivan, 2003). The people deserve to have an increase in allowance in order to change their lives as well as those of their villagers in the region of Colberia.
In looking at the ethics of care, it is the responsibility of the company to care for the needs of the workers (Slote, 2007). In this case, the health and safety of the workers should be provided. The workers walk for miles with huge bags weighing about fifty pounds. The workers should be provided with a transport system that will make it easy for them to carry the bags of plantation. The transport will also make work easier and more bags of the plantation will be transported in order to be used by the organization (Slote, 2007). Health insurance will be very good for the people. The people of Colberia are known to come from a poor environment. The health insurance will be a big boost for them because it will increase their immunity systems and wherever they fall ill especially due to fatigue through the harsh working environment they are subjected to will be good because they will be able to get treatment.
The case of the Colberio case it is evident that there is discrimination. The discrimination can be seen when the workers of PharmaCARE are living better lives than they are and no one seems to bother about how they are living. The PharmaCARE organization has many workers who are living lavish lifestyles with houses that have swimming pools. The people of Colberio working for the company on the other hand are living in huts and have no access to water and electricity. The deontology theory of ethics is claimed to be the normative ethical. This means that the morality that one possesses will be judged in accordance to the rules of the action (Waller, 1995).
In looking at this ethical theory, it shows how ethics is an obligation or a person’s duty. In looking at this case scenario between the directors from the PharmaCARE company should have a sense of duty or obligation to ensure that the workers from Colberio are well treated in the workplace. This should be done through ensuring the workers’ pay has been increased as well as the discrimination has been reduced. The action against discrimination in the workplace should be implemented. The discrimination in Colberio can be seen clearly. The workers of Colberio need many changes in order not to feel the odd one out.
The workers of PharmaCARE have better housing therefore, the housing situation for the people of Colberia working for the organization should be improved. They should be able to have access to water in the same way the PharmaCARE people are able to have swimming pool for their leisure. All said and done it is important for the people working for the PharmaCARE Company coming from Colberio to have an increase in pay in order for them to be able to have all they need in their lives. They work extremely hard; therefore, they need to be paid according to their work.
Discrimination is not only an ethical issue but it is also a legal issue especially in the workplace. There are a number of discrimination especially due to ones gender, sexual orientation, race, culture and religion. This discrimination cases are very common in the workplace all over the world. This is the main reasons why the discrimination act was created. The discrimination law was designed in order to protect the interest of the people in the workplace.
According to the law, anyone who has been caught for trying to discriminate against any person is liable to be taken to court and pay fines to the defendant. In looking at the Colberio case the workers coming from that place are being discriminated especially in the kind of work they are given. The jobs the people of Colberio are getting are harsh and demeaning especially when looking at the history of slavery. During the slavery era, the black people from Africa were brought to different parts of the world by the colonies and were made to work in the plantation by doing hard labor.
In looking at this case, it looks similar. The workers of colberia work in the plantation area and travel by walking for five miles in, which at most times they are carrying heavy bags. The amount of money that they receive through this labor is insulting to them. This, therefore, should be pointed out to the directors of the PharmaCARE Company
The virtue of ethics theory cannot be said to have been used in the PharmaCARE organization in Colberio. The reason for stating this is that according to the virtue of ethics theory it states that the good habits of people are brought on by the training they get from their own individual communities. According to the PharmaCARE Company, they were used to have good lives and they think that because the people of Colberio are used to the living of poverty therefore, they so no reason to give them more money.
Utilitarian theory in this case has not been used because when looking at the definition of the theory, which states that there is reduction of suffering when there, is a total maximization of the benefits (Williams, 1993). This can be said to have been done by the PharmaCARE organization towards the Colberio workers. The PharmaCARE Company is stated to be getting a lot of profit from the products they have, therefore, it would have been good if the company shared some of that profit to the people who work extremely hard for the company in the plantation and transportation of those plants. The reduction of suffering according to the case is that it will be done through increase of pay to the people working from Colberio.
The other ethical issue that can be seen from the PharmaCARE Company is that they have endangered the lives of the native species and also destroyed the natural inhabitant. This goes against the We CARE about you World initiative that they had formulated (Sullivan, 2003). The initiative was designed in order to help preserve the environment. This however, cannot be seen in Colberio where the land is being destroyed by the same company that claims wants to save the environment. This also goes against the virtue of ethics as well as the ethics of care, which is the environment.
Compare PharmaCARE’S actions with those of a real world company
There are many companies that have made the same actions as PharmaCARE that have led to environment, ethical and workplace issues. A good example of such a company is the BP or the British Petroleum Company that is London based (Krauss & Schwartz, 2012). The company is claimed to be a multination company for oil and gas. The BP Company has had many controversies about ethical issues, environmental, workplace safety and legal issues. The company has been convicted many times for pollution of the environment for example in Texas and Alaska. The company has also been found guilty for employee endangerment in the workplace thereby the company was fined.
The BP Company has had disastrous gas explosion in the Deepwater horizon offshore of the Gulf of Mexico (Krauss & Schwartz, 2012). BP has been seen stating that global warming was a serious issue and was happening. This shows their concern for the environment as well as in the case of PharmaCARE organization. The two companies show their support and concerns over the environment. However, both companies faced allegations that they have polluted or destroyed the environment. The BP Company has faced a number of allegations of pollution as seen in the case where 474 people from Texas filed for a lawsuit against the company in 2013. According to the residents in 2011, there was a toxic fume that was released in the area (Krauss & Schwartz, 2012). They believe the toxic fumes will end up affecting their health.
The BP Company has also been claimed to have damaged the land especially the farmland in Colombia. The land damage was brought on by the Ocensa Pipeline. The case came to an end when there was negotiations and a settlement was made. As for the PharmCARE company destroyed some of the land in Colberio. The BP Company has been claimed to have many safety issues especially for the workers. This safety issues has been brought on by the unsafe operations in the company. The company has been stated to have been fined for over 2.4 million dollars. The same safety issues apply in the PharmaCARE Company especially for workers from Colberio. However, the health issues may not be as severe as those from the BP Company due to oil and gas that have toxic fumes. In looking at their issues it does look like that, the two companies’ have similar problems but there is a difference in that in the BP Company the health safety is much more severe.
In conclusion, many companies are faced with ethical, environmental, legal and work place safety problems. In looking at the case of the PharmCARE Company, working in Colberia is faced with a number of these challenges. In Colberia the company pays, the workers very minimal wage and over works them. The indigenous people of the region give free advice on how to make their own medicine. The company should be obligated to pay them the same they would any other doctor. The case also shows that there is discrimination especially in the way the workers of the company are treated as well as paid. The situation from the case does not go with most of the ethical theories such as utilitarian, deontology, virtue of ethics and ethics of care.
Reference
Krauss, C., & Schwartz, J. (2012). BP Will Plead Guilty and Pay Over $4 Billion. The New York Times.
Panjabikesan, R. (2010). Stakeholders - characteristics and types. Management & Strategy Consulting .
Slote, M. A. (2007). The Ethics of Care and Empathy. New York: Routledge.
Sullivan, A. (2003). Economics: Principles in Action. New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall.
Waller, B. N. (1995). Consider Ethics: Theory, Readings, and Contemporary Issues. New York: Pearson Longman.
Williams, B. (1993). Utilitarianism Morality: An Introduction to Ethics. Cambridge University Press.
