A Behavioural Ethics Approach to Employment Law and Workplace Norms

Abstract

The field of behavioural ethics seeks to clarify how people behave when confronted with ethical dilemmas. It has identified and analysed numerous mechanisms by which people may engage in unethical and illegal behaviour without fully recognizing its implications. In the field of employment law, which focuses on the interaction between employers and employees, the subtle mechanisms which may underlie people’s decisions to behave unethically are especially relevant, but have not been the subject of significant study. The question examined here is how applying behavioural ethics to employment law can cast light on some current employment law issues, including compliance. To this end, the article identifies four contexts in which the law can be improved: ensuring protection for employees when they are under pressure to act in a manner contrary to their personal ethical standards; clarifying the measures to prevent workplace bullying; creating clear rules in the case of workplace changes such as working from home, which gives rise to expenses for the employee; and ensuring protection against small daily violations which are sometimes considered too negligible for enforcement purposes. The article argues that the development of employment law can benefit from taking behavioural ethics into account. Behavioural Ethics, Employment Law, Unnoticed Harms