Because of their unwillingness to wear protective equipment they are putting the entire workforce at risk for injury.
The advantage of using this theory is that it allows one to come up with a fairly simple equation that can be used to determine the number of people affected and by how much. The disadvantage of this theory is that it is sometimes hard to figure out how to assign units of happiness to the actions that you are trying to measure (Shaw & Barry, 2007, pp. 45-46). There are many elements of subjectiveness when trying to apply this theory, but in this particular case I feel that the danger that all workers would be exposed to far outweighs some individuals that would be happier not wearing their protective equipment. Not only is their danger to the workers but there is also dangers to the plant as a whole. If a worker that chose not to wear his or her protective equipment hurt themselves or others around them there would be potential legal actions that could occur against the company.
(3) Would your positions change if the worker was female and pregnant?
My position on either one of these issues would not change based upon the fact that the worker was female and pregnant. I would still feel that in the case of working overtime in the most dangerous parts of the plant should still be left up to each individual worker. Women who are pregnant have to make ethical decisions surrounding their pregnancies everyday and this situation should be no different. If the decision on whether to work the overtime...
In regards to the issue about wearing safety equipment the fact of having pregnant females exposed to harm because of acts of others only goes to reinforce my position of this decision by the company being unethical.
(4) Would your positions change if the worker was female and of child-bearing years?
In regards to the overtime issue and having female workers of child bearing years would have no bearing on my position of letting each worker to make their own decisions about whether they want to work the overtime or not. Again the company has no idea if each female employee that happens to be of child bearing age even has a desire to ever have children so this should have not bearing on the decisions that the company makes. Each person should be given the same right to chose as the next person, whether they are male or female. In regards to the issue of wearing protective equipment this fact would not change my position on this issue either. Again the protection of the employees and company as a whole greatly outweighs the happiness factor of some employees choosing not wear protective equipment. I feel that in this situation the greater good of the whole would definitely outweigh the happiness of a selected few.
References
Shaw, W.H. & Barry, V. (2007). Moral issues in business. (10th ed.). USA: Thomson
Wadsworth
