The ethics of employing prisoners

A solar energy company has come under fire for employing inmates from Prescoed open prison in its call centre in Wales. The scheme has attracted cricisim for two main reasons: the company pays the prisoners just £3 per day and it has also fired a significant number of workers since appointing the prisoners, inviting speculation that they were laid off to be replaced by cheap labour - an accusation the company has denied.

This issue may not be as clear cut as it first appears. On a recent Business Leaders tour, organised by the excellent Connect Reading, I heard how hard it is for former prisoners to find a job, which in turn leads to a higher risk of re-offending. So, in theory, anything that provides practical work experience and the opportunity to demonstrate that offenders can perform to the same standard as other workers should be a good thing. Is bussing prisoners into workplaces materially different to the kind of in-house programme run by Gordon Ramsay Behind Bars? Perhaps not - but for me, the core issue lies in the way prisoners are remunerated.

Just like offshoring jobs to developing countries, I feel that taking advantage of the opportunity to pay prisoners far less than the legal minimum wage is unacceptable. Especially in times of economic crisis, UK companies have a moral obligation to support their home labour force and invest in the domestic economy. Equally, I have some sympathy with the argument that work experience can help ex-offenders become productive and law-abiding members of society. So how to ensure that cheap prisoner labour doesn't erode the job prospects of regular workers?

One control already in place is a quota system - no more than 20% of a company's staff can be drawn from the prison community. But the fact that an upper limit is needed just seems to reinforce the notion that the main appeal to employers lies in the low cost of prisoner labour. So, what if the minimum wage legislation was applied to prisoners? While it might not be appropriate for those serving sentences to take home the same wage as a non-offender, the difference between what the employer pays and what the prisoner can keep could be contributed to a victim support fund.

This seems to me quite an elegant solution - it avoids the prison population becoming a source of cheap labour and it is likely to appeal to an entirely different segment of the business community. It moves the emphasis right away from low-cost labour and towards prisoner rehabilitation and it introduces a new element of social contribution - something that could sit quite comfortably with the CSR agenda of an ethical business.

Justice Secretary Kenneth Clarke has declared an intention to double the number of prisoners working full time, but this is apparently the first time that prisoners have been allowed to work outside prison premises. Now that the precedent has been set, it's important to ensure that prisoner outworking is put on a proper footing.

News International - a failure of culture?

The hackgate scandal and the subsequent repercussions in the News International empire have provided a graphic demonstration of what can happen within a company with a toxic culture. It's quite possible that the various executives were telling the truth when they sat before the select committee and professed their ignorance of phone tapping, but that doesn't mean they were blameless. Accounts of journalists working there at the time of the alleged events describe a workplace where there was overwhelming pressure to get the story at all costs. It's quite understandable that under these conditions some might feel compelled to resort to illegal methods of getting the scoop. The leaders of a company set the vision and values that drive its culture, and in doing so create a kind of moral framework that informs the decisions made by its staff.

This kind of culture is a hangover from the Gordon Gecko "greed is good", "win at all costs" mentality of the nineteen eighties that has mostly been left behind by today's more enlightened businesses. In its place, we are seeing a new approach to doing business where social capital is valued alongside financial capital on the triple bottom line. These organisations have a "win/win" mentality and aim to beat their competitors not by undercutting on price (and, as an inevitable consequence, quality) but by being more trusted as business partners. So as consumers - of goods, media, services, whatever - we now have a new benchmark for judging the desirability of a brand. Integrity, respect and honour are becoming the new currency of business, and the cynical and exploitative companies will find themselves outmanoeuvred in a way they quite possibly won't fully understand until it's too late.

Ethics in the news

I caught 5 minutes of Radio 1 Newsbeat this lunchtime. Leaving aside for a minute how Radio 1 dumbs down the news, I was struck by the fact that both items I heard centred on ethics. The first item reported the case of a professional footballer who has been put on the sex offenders register after grooming two under-age girls on the internet. Astonishingly, Hearts is backing Craig Thomson and has refused to sack him, although drinks sponsor macb has already withdrawn its support for the club as a result of his conviction. I wonder what a footballer has to do these days to get fired?

The next story concerned allegations that insurance companies are selling to personal injury lawers the contact details of customers who have made claims, so that they can be offered "no win, no fee" legal services. Since the escalation of such claims has been cited as the main reason for a 30% hike in insurance costs in the last 12 months, this is a double deceit. The reporter claimed that the insurance companies were not breaking any laws by passing on the data to a third party, so I'm off to check the small print of my insurance policy to see where they hid the clause that says I waive my rights under the Data Protection Act when I enter into a contract with them.

Rotten to the core?

Despite ranking a creditable 5th in Greenpeace's Greener Electronics guide, Apple fares less well on ethical use of labour. Those paying premium prices for the new iPad might be dismayed to learn that it is built by workers in a military-style factory in China, which is now in the spotlight for its high suicide rate among workers.

300,000 people work at the Foxconn factory, where they are forbidden to talk on the production line, even during breaks; many have complained of feeling lonely and alienated. These conditions, combined with massive demand for products like the 2M-selling iPad, appears to have placed an intolerable strain on workers, who are quitting the Longhua factory at the rate of 15,000 a month.

Workers have routinely worked more than 70 hours a week to fulfill orders. However, Apple maintains that Foxconn, which is one of Apple's primary suppliers, is not a sweatshop. Nevertheless, Foxconn has just agreed to immediately raise the basic salaries of its workers by a third, from £90 per month to £120.

You can read more on this story here, and from a marketing viewpoint here.

Mondonation - a survivor's success story

Last week, the BBC published a story on the Marchionness disaster, which occurred 20 years ago. I remember watching the horrific news footage in 1989, when over 50 people celebrating the birthday of a friend were killed in a boat collision on the Thames. The story mentioned Ward Bingham, who was interviewed about his memories of that night. Ward mentioned that his experience had led him to set up a business, Mondonation, so I checked it out.

According to its website, Mondonation is committed to inspiring positive, global change through the development of sustainable, charitable strategies. The first of these are "believe" T-shirts . The theory is that if we all share our beliefs on a daily basis, they will grow in strength. Visitors to the site are encouraged to write their own belief statement, that is printed onto the back of an ethically-made T-shirt. Included in the price is a charitable donation to a charity of their choice.

Mondonation seeks to create a new business model, which combines a for-profit approach with with substantial charitable contributions. In a moving video on the site, Ward Bingham explains how he has been searching for meaning in his life since the Marchionness disaster and how his role as the creative force behind Mondonation is the embodiment of his desire to make a difference.

Inspired by Ward and the Mondonation vision, I ordered my own T-shirt, pink and long-sleeved, bearing the legend "I believe every one of us can be a force for good". So if you spot me wearing it, say hi.