Business Law - Ethical issues Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Business Law - Ethical issues - Essay Example International entrepreneur ship spans cultural boundaries and involves a variety of stakeholders, including the entrepreneur, investors and policy makers (Asel, 2003). "Social considerations must be given the same status as economic, financial and environmental concerns in a holistic approach. It is time for global thinking and local action. The implementation of the Core Labour Standards and the laws and regulations that give effect to them at national levels can be significantly enhanced if the capacities of national labour inspectorates are built up and strengthened. Labour inspectors have a crucial role to play because they are the only ones with the authority to directly access and impose changes in the workplace."(Albracht, 2005) The increased working hours pose several external costs to the employees and employers both. They give rise to different health problems such as heart problems, high blood pressure, gastrointestinal disorders, psychological wellbeing and circadian disruption. The resulting increase in sick leave makes the organisation bear the cost of the illness of employee. The external cost effect thus transfers to society in shape of increasing tax burden on taxpayers and on Government for the provision of more social care facilities (Dawson, McCulloch and Baker, 2001). But in order to compete internationally it is important to increase the working hours. As stated by Berry (2005) "Europe's productivity is lagging behind the US and Asia because inflexible labour laws are preventing companies restructuring and investing in new technologies, a report shows. A DTI-sponsored study, published to coincide with the UK's presidency of the EU, criticises member countries, particularly France, Germany, Spain and Italy, for not having the courage to reform labour laws. EU heads of state agreed a 10-year programme in 2000 to increase investment and make the EU "the most dynamic and competitive knowledge-based economy in the world". However, the DTI report said little progress has been made in achieving this goal. Companies in Europe have to pursue a policy of "creative destruction" to change the way they do business and learn from the "hire and fire" culture of the US to compete globally, the report said. At a conference key European players from business and government discussed the challenge of the future of information and communication technologies (ICT) policy. Viviane Reding, EU commissioner for information society and media, said many workers were concerned about their jobs and the EU would only strengthen economic growth by investing in ICT and abolishing "superfluous regulation" Although the hire and fire culture seems an easy way of achieving economic goals but the change in the policies regarding the employment can