Do employers have an ethical duty to grant employees constitutionally protected civil liberties like...?
Do employers have an ethical duty to grant employees constitutionally protected civil liberties like the freedoms of speech and expression or are there legitimate business reasons for an employer to limit or abridge its employee’s civil rights while at work? While not at work? Which ethical principles or questions are important to consider when deciding whether "business interests" provide legitimate grounds for abridging civil rights?
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Public Comments
1. The civil liberties like freedom of speech are protections against government action, not against employers' actions. The government cannot deny your liberties, but an employer has a right to do so.Free speech, for example, may be harmful in the workplace. It could, for example, create a hostile work environment. That would increase liability for the employer, as well as creating harm for co-workers.
Civil liberties and civil rights are VERY different things. Civil liberties are protections of freedoms for individuals from government actions. Civil rights are protections of equality, often requiring government action; these protections apply to employers, among others.
Civil rights, such as equal treatment of employees regardless of race, age, sex, religion etc., must be upheld by employers for ethical and legal and practical reasons.
In short, there are few legitimate business reasons to limit civil rights in the workplace. (Example: The Catholic church may choose to hire only Catholics and, legally, discriminate against persons of other religions.)
There are many legitimate business reasons to restrict speech and other expressive liberties in the workplace, since the protection of these liberties are not protections against employers.
2. It depends on what civil liberties we're talking about. Employers certainly have an ethical duty to uphold some civil liberties like Equal Protection. There aren't really any valid business justifications that justify treating people differently because of their race, for instance. As another example, an employer should not (and cannot) tell an employee who to vote for in a political campaign.
However, employers have valid reasons to limit some freedoms in the workplace that we would ordinarily consider civil liberties. The right of free speech in probably the best example. With a lot of businesses, it is absolutely vital that the employees not be able to say whatever they want to whomever they want. Law firms and doctors offices are a good example. Lawyers owe legal and ethical duties not to talk about their clients cases to outsiders, and doctors can't discuss their patients' medical histories. Thus, it makes sense that people who work for doctors and lawyers should be required to keep their mouths shut about work-related matters, even when they are not at work. For another example, if you work for a company that invents new products, that company ought to be able to prevent employees from telling its secrets to a competing company; otherwise it won't be able to function. These are just some ideas, and there are a lot of other places you can take this question. Hope this helps!
