Another ramification of the affirmative testimony nature of Hekhsher Tzedek relates to leverage: Suppose a regional NLRB rules against a labor union complaint. At this juncture, the company’s Hekhsher Tzedek certification should be reinstated. But the union can block this reinstatement by appealing the ruling to the National Board. If the union goes this route, the company’s Hekhsher Tzedek certification will remain suspended, at the very least, until the lengthy and costly appeal process is over. Hekhsher Tzedek hence empowers the union with leverage it never had before.
In short, one can conceive of many scenarios where the temporary suspension of the Hekhsher Tzedek imprimatur would result in unwarranted bias and hence in undeserved harm for a company.
In pursuing its investigative probes, Hekhsher Tzedek will be hampered because, unlike government, it will have neither trained investigators nor subpoena power. The issue therefore becomes whether its judicial decisions will command confidence and trust in the marketplace.
By design, Hekhsher Tzedek is overwhelmingly one-sided. It considers only how employers treat their workers, not how workers treat their employers. Making judgments about tzedek in the workplace, however, requires consideration of the reciprocal relationship between employer and employee.
To illustrate, suppose workers lodge a complaint against their employer for not paying them for the time they spend putting on their protective gear at the beginning of a shift and taking off their gear at the end of it. Suppose, for argument’s sake, the complaint is valid. But suppose also that the workers report to work late and idle significantly on the employer’s time and the company does not dock their pay. What is the tzedek certifier to make of this?
Yes, the company should be denied tzedek certification. But why should the workers be immune from reproof? Accordingly, perhaps the certifier should say, “We found no tzedek in labor-management relations here. Instead, we found plenty of abuse, all around.”
Relatedly, Hekhsher Tzedek is very much concerned that employers not interfere with worker efforts to unionize. But suppose union organizers make use of strong-arm techniques to coerce workers to vote to unionize. Should not Tzedek certification be denied based on this factor?
Another problem is that Hekhsher Tzedek certification does not cover a firm’s relationship to its customers and suppliers. Conferring Tzedek certification based on the employer’s conduct only vis-a vis his workers could very well have the effect on the margin of shifting the employer’s moral energy toward labor relations while ignoring the other stakeholders he deals with in his business.
Suppose that in the process of evaluating a company, the Hekhsher Tzedek certifier hears a complaint that the firm is in serious arrears with it suppliers or is cheating its customers. Should those complaints be ignored because they are not part of the agenda of Hekhsher Tzedek?
Finally, let’s turn to cost. Consider that the plan is for companies to pay a fee for the certification. In addition, the “livable wage” provision aspires for increases in amenities for workers; amenities that neither secular law nor halacha mandates for individual employers. (In a forthcoming issue of Tradition, I address the “living wage” concept from the standpoint of Jewish labor law and charity law.)
Likewise, reducing carbon emissions entails incremental costs, as for example, when a company eliminates Styrofoam cups, initiates a recycling program, or replaces incandescent lighting with fluorescent lighting. For companies operating on small profit margins, adoption of these measures on top of the cost of securing the kashrut certification may prove prohibitive.
Large companies, on the other hand, may find Hekhsher Tzedek a good investment by which to gain a competitive advantage. Hekhsher Tzedek may thus become an unwitting vehicle in driving out small firms, which in the long run will equip surviving firms with the necessary leverage to raise prices.
Hekhsher Tzedek is a constructive idea – but without proper vetting before implementation, it stands to generate many unintended negative side effects.