A Moral Dilemma

Situation: A 42 year old male suddenly and unexpectedly died of a brain tumor, leaving behind a wife and a small child. During a review of his employee benefits, it was noted that although he was eligible for an additional company-sponsored life insurance plan used for plant decommissioning purposes, his name was not identified on the insurance rolls. Evaluation: It was determined that when the employee was promoted to supervisor 3 years before his death, his paperwork had been submitted to the corporate office for inclusion in the program. Coincidentally, the program was under review at the time, and the employee was not entered into the program due to administrative oversight. Legal: A legal department review determined that the program was offered to certain supervisory employees at the discretion of the company. Therefore, there was no legal obligation to pay. Dilemma: The death twice the employee’s salary. Because the employee was not enrolled in the life insurance program, if the company were to pay any benefit, it would have to come from the general fund (paid from the business unit’s annual operating budget). Q1. What are the ethical issues in this case? Support your answer using ethical principles. Q2. If you have been given the responsibility as a senior executive of the company “to pay or not to pay” what would you do ? Why ?