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In the United States, the system of employment is known as "at-will employment." The premise of this system is that an employee and an employer engage is an employment contract that can be terminated by either party at any time, regardless of the reason (Standler, 2000). While the doctrine itself rightfully has its critics, it remains a part of the employment law landscape in the United States. Thus, employees who choose to work at Wal-Mart understand that they are doing so only on the basis that they understand the terms of employment and accept those terms. Employees who do not accept Wal-Mart's terms need not work for the company. As such, there can be no reasonable claims of unfairness in Wal-Mart's employment practices -- they are employing people on the same legal basis as every other company in the United States.
Overall, the issues that people have with respect to Wal-Mart's ethics lie largely in either the application of a consequentialist ethics systems or in a general issue with our current economic and legal system. The former is simply unreasonable for our culture, which is based on the rule of law -- that is a deontological ethical system where right and wrong is determined by the actions themselves, rather than their outcomes. The latter is a logical fallacy -- it is not Wal-Mart with whom the complainant has the grievance but rather the system as a whole. Using Wal-Mart as a proxy for the entire economic and legal system is intellectually dishonest. But these outcomes derive merely from Wal-Mart executing at a very high level within our system. The sources of complaint are indeed laws that have been enacted by one means or another -- trade and employment laws for example -- so that the ultimate source of the grievance is not Wal-Mart at all, but the government that passed those laws. As a corporation, Wal-Mart must work within the confines of the laws of the land and the company generally does that. If the outcomes are not to everybody's taste, that is a fair complaint, but that complaint is directed at the system, not at Wal-Mart, which must legally follow those same rules that are the source of the complaint.
Works Cited:
Barker, N. (no date). U.S. Trade with China: Expectations vs. reality. PBS Frontline. Retrieved January 15, 2011 from http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/walmart/china/trade.html
Bergdahl, M. (no date). Wal-Mart is a company obsessed with lowering costs. Michael Bergdahl.net. Retrieved online, in possession of the author.
FASOnline. (2000). The U.S.-China WTO accession deal. USDA. Retrieved January 15, 2011 from http://www.fas.usda.gov/info/factsheets/China/deal.html
Standler, R. (2000). History of at-will employment law in the U.S.A. RBS2.com. Retrieved January 15, 2011 from http://www.rbs2.com/atwill.htm
Works Cited:
Barker, N. (no date). U.S. Trade with China: Expectations vs. reality. PBS Frontline. Retrieved January 15, 2011 from http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/walmart/china/trade.html
Bergdahl, M. (no date). Wal-Mart is a company obsessed with lowering costs. Michael Bergdahl.net. Retrieved online, in possession of the author.
FASOnline. (2000). The U.S.-China WTO accession deal. USDA. Retrieved January 15, 2011 from http://www.fas.usda.gov/info/factsheets/China/deal.html
Standler, R. (2000). History of at-will employment law in the U.S.A. RBS2.com. Retrieved January 15, 2011 from http://www.rbs2.com/atwill.htm
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