Issue 052 PDF Version - Christian Ethics Today

lift dumpsters over the truck cab and empty them into a hopper
behind the driver’s head). The trucks have internal compactors
and when full will weigh close to thirty tons. The fuel
cost for pushing an empty front–end loader down the street
is about one-fifth of the cost of pushing a full one down the
street. Thus routes are designed to begin at the furthest point
from the landfill and work toward the landfill. Part of the
driver’s duty is to make certain that the fewest miles are driven
when fully loaded.
For years the drivers, like all other employees in the refuse
division, were paid on an hourly basis,. The hourly rate was
quite high, intentionally set to combat a specific challenge. It
is difficult to maneuver a large truck in a congested apartment
complex parking lot without doing damage. The solution
was to double their pay, with the absolute warning that
they would be terminated if they had even one accident. The
accidents ceased overnight. The drivers became very careful
because they liked the higher pay.
A new Chief Operations Officer, who had an MBA and
many new ideas, made a study of the comparative costs for
each dumpster lift. He discovered that some of the drivers
were on the clock for over ten hours, while other drivers (due
to various skills), could run their route in six hours. Thus the
company was paying a premium to inefficient drivers.
The proposed solution was to put the drivers back on
minimum wage and provide them additional compensation
for each dumpster they picked up. The slow drivers rebelled
and the speedy drivers thought it was a great idea. The end
result was that the faster drivers requested additional dumpsters
be added to their routes, which reduced the number of
routes by 20%. Since front–end loader garbage trucks each
cost about $150,000, the reduction in the number of needed
trucks resulted in a significant savings.
What was the ethical challenge here? Most of the slower
drivers were older and had relied on their overtime income to
keep children in college, make payments on a home, or meet
other basic needs. By moving them to a different pay schedule,
which management felt was fair to the company, the driver’s
were impacted significantly.
One corporate ethics text described the owners’ ethical
dilemma: “To separate from ‘personal ethics’ any
autonomous area of ‘business life’ where God does not rule
22 • CHRISTMAS 2004 • CHRISTIAN ETHICS TODAY
would be unthinkable in biblical theology.” 22 The authors of
this text offered corporate management some basic principles:
1. God’s law demands justice and truth; 2. There is an
interrelatedness of all things—nothing is isolated from its
effects on others; and 3. A believer must inject biblical ethics
into corporate decision-making.
Case three happened at a point in the company history
when it was not struggling financially. If the situation had
occurred early in the company history, when it was burdened
by significant debt payments, there probably would have
been little sympathy for the older drivers and their loss of
income.
Christian ethical principles that apply to the ethical treatment
of the older drivers are found in Stephen Mott’s biblical
ethics textbook: 23
Our ethical behavior is to correspond to what God has
enabled us to be by adoption and grace based on God’s
historical, once–for–all act in Christ’s death and resurrection.
Be (imperative) what you are (indicative) in Christ;
thus we are given an ‘indicative and imperative’ ethical
appeal. We could call it ‘grace and ethics.’ 24
One basic plank of Christian ethics is that Love transcends
Justice. Justice can be an instrument of love.
Justice functions to ensure that in our common life we
are for our fellow human beings, which is, indeed, the
meaning of love. (54).
Wherever there is basic human need, we are obliged to
help to the extent of our ability and opportunity. (77).
We are not faced with a dualistic ethic: there is not one
ethical standard for private and intimate life and a different
one for commercial and political life. The same criteria
of judgment apply to both situations, but the latter is
more complex. (184).
Case three presents a classic case of conflict between
doing what is best for the company, which would reduce the
pay of the older drivers in accordance with their production,
or doing what is best for the drivers by permitting them to
maintain the same income for the same work they had been
doing for years. An analysis of the problem might indicate
different outcomes, depending on the person having to make
the decision.
A supervisor with a duty to the company most probably