When job collides with moral values

By ASHLEY CAMPBELL

Imagine you're a chief executive of a land trust and you believe your board is dysfunctional. Do you keep quiet to keep your job, or quit?

Or a surgeon worried that service cuts are endangering lives: do you speak out or keep quiet?

What if your sales targets are set so high that to meet them you have to sell products that customers don't need and can't afford: do you object or keep quiet and sell?

What do you do when your job and your ethics collide?

Many people keep quiet. Andrew Casidy, assistant general secretary of finance workers' union Finsec, says at least once a week a member would complain about management bullying, discrimination or other unethical behaviour towards a colleague which they have witnessed.

And about half decide not to take it any further because "the odds are overwhelming".

Rod Berry, general manager of employment counsellors EAP Services, tells of one employee who kept quiet about a senior manager's embezzling because he thought it must be an honest mistake.

When an internal investigation was launched, the employee thought his job could be in danger.

"They were scared they were going to get rolled into it, because they had known something was wrong - they had identified it - but hadn't taken any action."

After putting everything in writing and coming clean to the investigation, he kept his job, but the senior manager was fired.

But some people speak out. Tainui chief executive David Gray quit, then went public; surgeon Peter Dryburgh spoke out because "I did not want this issue to be swept under the carpet"; bank officers have gone to their union to fight what's known as "product flogging".

When you realise you have an ethical problem at work, says Berry, you should first go through the proper internal procedures to solve it.

Let's say you are a salesperson told to sell a new product line that contains nicotine, to which you object. Your manager says you have to sell the product, it's part of your job. "In that case, we've got to get the employee talking to the employer," Berry says. "The employer can't sack someone just because they won't sell one product line."

There are many steps, such as counselling and written warnings, before your job is in danger, and good communication and listening skills mean you can probably solve the problem before that happens, Berry says.

Employers recognise that it is in their best interests to solve such issues, he says.

Casidy suggests talking to your colleagues - they may be facing the same dilemma.

If several of you are facing the same dilemma, you may be able to present a united front.

You may have done all this and still reached stalemate, and because of the type of problem or wrongdoing, are not covered by the Protected Disclosures Act (see box). What next?

The good news is you are covered by employment and human rights laws, which give you some protection, even if the outcome is not assured.

Employment lawyer Andrew Scott-Howman, of Bell Gully, says employers and employees must act in good faith, and some ethical dilemmas could reveal a breach of that good faith.

A salesperson could say selling nicotine was not what they signed up to do and the employer has breached good faith, he says.

"The employer can equally say: 'It's a reasonable direction and if you're not going to follow it, I'll sack you."'

Now you have what the Employment Relationship Act calls an "employment relationship problem".

The first step to solving it is to use the Labour Department's mediation service.

But if you can't solve the problem through mediation or an Employment Relations Authority hearing, it could end up in the Employment Court and cost you thousands of dollars.

Outcomes would differ in each case, says Scott-Howman.

"For example, if you were a salesperson for Rothmans, it would be rather nice of you on day one to say: 'I've got an ethical problem selling cigarettes'."

If, however, the company has not sold nicotine before, you couldn't be expected to do this.

The ERA prohibits discrimination on the grounds of ethical belief, but this is not the sort of situation the drafters of the legislation had in mind, says Scott-Howman.

That's not to say it couldn't be argued, as interpretation is continuously changing with society's attitudes.

You may decide, however, that this is all too much hassle and it's easier to find another job, or learn to live with your disquiet.

Making such a decision is difficult, says Berry, and can take two to three months.

"We ask people to look at their lifestyle, and their needs and wants - what are the positive things they want to achieve? The nicotine is just one issue - what do they have to do to maintain [the rest of] their lifestyle?"

Ultimately, says Casidy, you may do nothing, or leave, and that's okay - but make sure it doesn't just happen that way.

"Don't let choices be made for you - make them yourself."