(Solution) 5CO03 Recognise when and how you would raise matters which conflict with ethical values or legislation. (AC1.4)

a) where you consider something to be unethical (whether or not it is illegal),

b) where you believe something contravenes legislation

Short references should be added into your narrative below. Please remember to only list your long references in the reference box provided at the end of this section. Word count: Approximately 350 words

Working in my current organisation, the management had come up with a policy requiring the employees to be based/located in a particular location. This was a policy favourable to local people and the employees/workers based in a particular organisation geographical positioning. This was a policy conflicting with legislations such as Equality Act 2010 which makes it against the law to discriminate people of different ethnicities (Sánchez-Monedero et al., 2020). As part of recruitment and selection, the employees with an interest to apply for a job but found living in different locations were in a disadvantage of being considered. This is a major discrimination which affected the scope of their performance in their roles. The identified policy in my organisation was conflicting with the identified legislation (Equality Act 2010). From a general context, the legislation is used in protecting occurrence of any form of discrimination. A majority of the employees tend to have a disconnect with this policy but with fears of highlighting this issue to the management teams.

How to Raise the Issue

Considering I was significantly impacted by this policy, I preferred highlighting the issue in an informal manner with employer. At the start, I felt nervous pertaining to highlighting on this issue. However, my employer was ready to resolve issues in workplace promptly with zero consideration of the formal approach. I had a strong confidence to talk to different employers since my workplace has put in place a policy encouraging all people to speak up on the issues impacting them. According to ACAS findings, the informal chats with different employers could be raging from quietly speaking up or use of a well-structured meeting/engagement (ACAS, 2023). After making sure I speak up with all the employers, they made an invitation to me to share an engagement for sharing entire concerns. Considering I was the key individual who had pointed out about the issue, I made preparations which I can note for example explained all people unhappiness with policy and evidencing that this policy was conflicting with legislations and ethical practice. In the verge of this meeting, I made an explanation of the issues which had been faced and making suggestions which explain what need to be pursued.

The different alternatives towards highlighting on the issue in workplace entail using different suggestion boxes, survey, employee representatives and whistleblowing. In an event the employees have fears of communicating in a direct manner to their employees, they could prioritise on dropping down a messaging in suggestion boxes, making responses to surveys which are shared and engaging various representatives. The legislation facilitates whistleblowing in an event informal strategies have failed in their roles (Marcum & Young, 2020).

Example of unethical issue– Manipulating pay required for reimbursement by an organisation.

Breaching ethical code– In my work in MNGHA, post-COVID, the employees were provided with an opportunity for remote working. My organisation had assumed a full charge to facilitate and support the remote working practices. The support scope involved internet connection subscriptions, renewing systems (Microsoft 365 and Zoom). It was expected that the overall costs of operations would substantially increase. A manipulation of what needed to be paid was evident by some of the employee. Taking money by false pretence by the employees is an unethical issue.

Procedure to raise the issue

·      Engaging senior management for a meeting

·      Documentation of the issues raised in form of bills, suspicion

·      Harnessing a professional-based approach

·      Setting the communication approach to be adopted in managing unethical practices

Short references should be added into your narrative below. Please remember to only list your long references in the reference box provided at the end of this section. Word count: Approximately 400 words