Law and Ethics in Coca Cola Company
Coca cola is the prime global beverage company that runs the biggest delivery structure all over the globe. The company is able to serve about one million of its products to its consumers on a daily basis. The marketing strategy that is applied by this company promotes its products from four out of the five uppermost vending soft beverages such as diet coke, Fanta, sprite and Coke in order to earn sales (Datamonitor: Coca-Cola Enterprises Inc., 2009). This process has been effective and it has helped the company to build strong customer relations which give this business the opportunity to be identified as well as be satisfied.
Even though Coca-Cola is able to produce and vend immensely across United States, to help it expand and develop, the company has had to construct their international soft beverage market by ensuring that they sell their products to customers internationally (Datamonitor: Coca-Cola Enterprises Inc., 2009). The company has sustained its target on intercontinental markets by concentrating on old-fashioned soft drinks, latest beverages and also getting bigger into the snack food trade. With this trend, Coca Cola has been able acquire 85% of the world’s snack food market making it a large global company with a substantial American commerce (Joseph, 2014).
The overall goal of Coca Cola Company is to increase the market share. Rivalries between other soft beverages businesses, dishonest market share information and other business behaviours can cause certain difficulties if the uppermost vending firms allow them (Joseph, 2014). Coca Cola has however applied one strategy since the 1800s and that is realizing goals such as worldwide unifications, immense market stocks, snack food manufacture and inclusive performance that have endorsed the company to endeavour and continue to prosper all through the years.
Legal laws governing Coca Cola Operations
Coca Cola Company follows different types of laws in the different countries that they operate in but there are those common laws that apply globally. The production, supply and the trades of some of its merchandises are all under various laws including the Federal Food; the Federal Trade Commission Act; Drug and Cosmetic Act and the Lanham Act (Governance & Ethics, 2016). The company always ensure that it follows rivalry laws, environment linked regulations, customer right regulations, commercial bylaws according to various countries its operating in.
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) Legal issues within Coca Cola Company
Just like with many other companies, Coca Cola has had its share of legal issues ranging from racial discrimination, problems with distributors, quality of the products, inflated earning and problems with unions among others that fall under the EEOC laws.
- Discrimination based on race
EEOC advocates for equal rights for every employee and it is termed unlawful to categorize a person on the base of colour, race, religion, nationality or even sex (Doyle, 2018). In the year 1999, Coca Cola Company was faced with a legal charge for discriminating 1500 African Americans and giving them lower pays as compared to their Caucasian counterparts. The plaintiffs complained that they were paid $26,000 less every year which was a very big difference and it was made worse by the fact that the uppermost administration knew about it for four years but did not bother to deal with the issue. The firm after denying about the discrimination issue later in the year 2000 agreed to pay $193 million to settle the discrimination lawsuit (Bailey, 2014).
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- Discrimination based on gender
The EEOC law also advocates for equal pay in the Equal Pay Act of 1963 which clearly states that women and women should receive job opportunities and equal pay for equal work. It is also termed illegal for an organization to retaliate against an employee for participating in an employment discrimination lawsuit (Doyle, 2018). In the year 2016, Coca Cola was faced with a legal suit by EEOC for denying Martina Owes a job opportunity in two vacant positions all because she was a woman. Though Owes had the required qualifications, the company choose to hire men that were less qualified for the positions. The company settled the case with $35,000 settlement (U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. 2016).
Discrimination based on disability
The law also equally makes it illegal to discriminate against qualified persons with disability. The law makes it clear that an employee should reasonably lodge the known bodily as well as psychological confines of a qualified candidate or worker with infirmity (Doyle, 2018). Coca Cola company has recently entered an agreement with EEOC where it has been forced to pay $2.25 million to settle nine infirmity discernment charges that supposed that the firm failed to appropriately quarter persons with infirmities (Burden, 2018). The company has as of the year 2018 agreed to bring up-to-date its dogmas and measures as well as improve housings that are provided to the employees returning to work after an infirmity connected absence.
Friedman inputs on discrimination issues
Milton Friedman criticizes discrimination arguing that the colour, sex or region of an individual should not be a reason to treat them differently (Fenster, 2012). He further illustrates that an individual should be judged by what he does but not by external characteristics (Fenster, 2012). Friedman would have greatly educated the executives in Coca Cola on the ethics of treating people equally for better development of the company.
Utilitarianism theory inputs on discrimination issues
The utilitarianism theory argues that if an action results in the happiness of the larger society, then it is right (Harel & Segal, 2014). Discrimination is an act that displeases the society at large; it not only affects the perception of the employees on the company but also the society which creates a certain negative image on the company. When one decides to make morally correct decisions it leads to increased happiness to the individual also to the people around them (Harel & Segal, 2014). The decision to discriminate some individuals by Coca Cola Company affected the perception of the society on the company and it cost the company losses that will never be recovered. Utilitarianism would greatly help executives in Coca Cola Company to understand the importance of creating a positive environment for all workers.
Conclusion
Coca Cola Company is one of the most effective and known brands in the domain. Though it has been faced with a share of some ethical problems, the organization’s identity has managed to remain moderately faultless. Coca Cola attempts to lessen their ethical disputes to a minimum in order to attention on prolonging its market all over the world. All the legal matters that have been presented were glitches that were controlled legally well and the company made sure to alter its policies to ensure that such issues do not reoccur which greatly help the company to still stand as one of the uppermost beverage enterprises in the globe.
References
Bailey, B. (2014, September 05). Great Plains Coca-Cola settles federal discrimination claim. Retrieved from https://newsok.com/article/5338875/great-plains-coca-cola-settles-federal-discrimination-claim
Burden, L. (2018, September 03). USA: Coca-Cola to pay $ 2.25 mln. to settle 9 discrimination charges alleging co's failure to properly accommodate employees with disabilities. Retrieved from https://www.business-humanrights.org/en/usa-coca-cola-to-pay-225-mln-to-settle-9-discrimination-charges-alleging-cos-failure-to-properly-accommodate-employees-with-disabilities
Datamonitor: Coca-Cola Enterprises Inc. (2009). Coca-Cola Enterprises, Inc. SWOT Analysis, 1-9.
Doyle, A. (2018). What Is the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC)? Retrieved from https://www.thebalancecareers.com/what-is-the-equal-employment-opportunity-commission-eeoc-2060496
Fenster, Danny. 2012. Quicklet on Capitalism and Freedom by Milton Friedman : Key Terms and Definitions. San Francisco: Hyperink - Capitalism and Freedom Quicklet. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=1011884&site=ehost-live.
Governance & Ethics. (2016, September 20). Retrieved from https://www.coca-colacompany.com/our-company/governance-ethics/governance-ethics
Harel, A., & Segal, U. (2014). Utilitarianism and discrimination. Social Choice & Welfare, 42(2), 367–380. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00355-013-0734-2
Joseph, S. (2014). Coke's five 'disruptive' tips to break from marketing paradigms. Marketing Week (Online Edition), 1.
U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. (2016, December 4) ‘Coca-Cola Bottling Of Mobile to Pay $35,000 to Settle EEOC Sex Discrimination Suit.. Retrieved from https://www.eeoc.gov/eeoc/newsroom/release/4-12-16.cfm
