DEFINING DISCRIMINATION
Apr 12th, 1999 • Posted in: Weekly OverviewWhen is treating one group of consumers differently from another simply sensible business practice, and when does it cross the line into discrimination? That’s the thread running through our top stories this week in Business Ethics Newsline, your weekly guide to news viewed through the lenses of commerce and ethics.
Our lead story this week deals with a lawsuit alleging that a long-distance company discriminated against certain clients by refusing to connect an international call from an inner-city neighborhood that reportedly is a hotbed of calling-card fraud.
We follow with a report on President Clinton’s backing of a bill to eliminate what supporters claim is persistent discrimination against women because of pay inequities. Next, we have a story dealing with allegations of discrimination against banana growers affiliated with U.S. companies.
And we have an interesting report centering on claims by a watchdog group that banks unfairly double-charge customers for ATM services.
Two reports this week deal with freedom of the international press: the Iranian government’s displeasure with a newspaper flexing its muscles under the government’s partial press-freedom policy, and a Manila newspaper that apologized to the nation’s president after running an investigative feature about him — much to the dismay of some staffers who claim the paper is simply knuckling under to economic pressure.
Several interesting stories come from Britain this week: contention over a proposed link between teachers’ salaries and student performance, a report claiming British supermarkets overcharge customers, and a government agency that is considering classifying workplace stress as an occupational health hazard.
And we conclude our wrap of the news of the week with two domestic stories about sensitivities and sensibilities: a campaign to make New York City police be more polite to members of the public (including those they arrest), and a federal panel that revoked several of the Washington Redskins’ trademarks on the grounds that they were demeaning.
Our Canadian correspondent Errol Mendes files two ethics-related reports this week, one about workplace violence, the other concerning lawsuits related to alleged sexual abuse in church-run schools.
Our Trendlines department looks at several interesting ethics-related features: schools earning income from allowing businesses to undertake market research on campus; a fresh look at the relationship between ethics and keeping customers happy and loyal; and a researcher who says that more Americans than ever are defining who they are and what their life is about via the workplace.
And we conclude our report with two updates: one on a recent tobacco damage award, the other on Wal-Mart’s trade-secrets lawsuit against Amazon.com.
Have a productive, ethical week.
– Carl Hausman
Print This Story
Email This Story
