Beyond Coercion: Moral Assessment in the Labour Market

Dan Munter; Lars Lindblom

doi:10.1007/s10551-015-2736-8

Journal of Business Ethics

April 2017, Volume 142, Issue 1, pp 59–70

Beyond Coercion: Moral Assessment in the Labour Market

Authors
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Dan MunterEmail author
Lars Lindblom

Article

First Online:: 07 July 2015

Received:: 05 August 2014
Accepted:: 18 June 2015

DOI: 10.1007/s10551-015-2736-8

Cite this article as:: Munter, D. & Lindblom, L. J Bus Ethics (2017) 142: 59. doi:10.1007/s10551-015-2736-8

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Abstract

Some libertarians argue that informed consent alone makes transactions in the labour market morally justified. In contrast, some of their critics claim that such an act of consent is no guarantee against coercion. To know whether agreements are voluntary, we need to assess the quality of the offers or the prevailing background conditions. ISCT theorists argue that it is imperative to take social norms into account when evaluating the labour market. We present a novel framework for moral assessment in the labour market, which takes consent, background conditions and norms into account, but which mainly focuses on the offers and demands made. Consent renders a transaction legitimate in the same way we regard a fair election legitimate even if we object to its outcome. For offers to be substantially justified, exploitation must be avoided and offers must give expression to the value of community. Only then they are morally justified.

Keywords

Coercion Consent Exploitation Labour market Legitimacy Moral community

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Dan Munter
- 1
Email author
Lars Lindblom
- 2

1.Department of Philosophy and HistoryRoyal Institute of Technology (KTH)StockholmSweden
2.Department of Historical, Philosophical and Religious StudiesUmeå UniversityUmeåSweden

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