Sunday, January 23, 2011

Chipotle Mexican Grill Unethical Illegal Employees

A well-known chain restaurant around the United States, Chipotle Mexican Grill, has recently faced crucial ethical issues at many branches in Minnesota. Specifically, a downtown Minneapolis restaurant was audited for the first time for illegal employee immigration. The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) requested official documentation for the Minnesota restaurant employees to prove that they are legal citizens. During the first attempt, Chipotle allegedly submitted documents that seem to be illegitimate and counterfeit. ICE offered a second chance to allow employees to submit new documents and clarify any errors. After firing a number of employees from the franchise, protesters disapproved of the unethical conduct of Chipotle outside of a downtown restaurant. Unfortunately, there was never any report of the final amount of employees who were let go or suspected of having fraudulent documents at the 50 Minnesota restaurants.

The article in Wall Street Journal also notes that Chipotle is well-known for buying meet from local farmers who are unsanitary since they do not use antibiotics in their chicken nor pen their pigs. Yet it seems very hypocritical that Chipotle is well-known for conducting business with the philosophy of “food with integrity.”

Overall, it is clear that Chipotle is dealing with an ethical issue of whether it is appropriate to give illegal immigrants an opportunity to work and survive in America. On one hand, one’s personal ethics may cause one to believe that illegal immigrants suffer from not finding employment successfully. Therefore, it is wrong for Chipotle to just lay off the suspected illegal employees and denying them a chance to work a steady job to feed their families. On the other hand, business ethics affects the decision of Chipotle because by law it is illegal to employ non-citizens which could greatly affect the company. Now Chipotle’s unethical behavior may penalize the company in ways such as their profit or consumers at the food chain. This article provides a clear example to how businesses must commit to specific ethical practices in order to maintain legal compliance throughout their industry.

No comments:

Post a Comment