Ethics...
A modern corporaton has no ethics - neither did non-modern corporations
The people who work there do (or should do).
This is complicated (not really)
TL;DR:
An $evil outcome is very easily achieved by a chain of people just doing their jobs in a putatively non-$evil way
1
You are a major shareholder in $corp - aka a fund manager
You see your $corp shares have not done as well as $close_competitor
You looking in the accounts and see that the cost / income ratio is different
You like your well-paid job. Your fund is under-performing
You call the management of $corp and say 'make more money' - 'cut costs'
2
You run or work in $corp at a high level.
Your shareholders have called you and said 'make more money' - 'cut costs'
You see £close_competitor and one of your minions tells you they make more money because their staff cost less.
You do not want to lose your job - or get taken over - or look stupid in front of peers
You issue an order "cut staff costs"
3
You work in a corp at a middle level.
You get an order "cut staff costs"
You have a spreadsheet that says getting rid some higher-paid people will reduce costs more and have less disruption on BAU.
You talk to lawyers who develop redundancy plans and schemes for redeployment that 'should' (no guarantees) be within the law
You issue an order "cut staff costs - these people"
4
You work in a corp at a middle level.
You get an order "staff reduction - these people"
You work through the process
5
Colin / Cathy $older_person after a gender / race / etc independant process loses their job.
I would - inside a 'just joking' clause suggest a "Corporate Morality Officer" who should be spotting this and taking responsibility for it.
But I bet there is such a thing out there already - probably in the BBC.