How about being a decent reasonable human being/employer? Or is that just off the table altogether in this discussion?
With limbo-like justifications like this I'm not surprised these kind of diseased company cultures exist.
This is exactly why labor law exists and why libertarian/extreme capitalist societies could never function. The argument "it's a free market" doesn't hold water. Without a system of checks and balances exploitation will always take place because there are always people desperate enough to do anything to make a living. No matter what you say about "free markets" and "voluntary agreements", you can't convince me that it's right and ethical and a good idea in any capacity.
In the entire category of white-collar jobs the idea of requiring labor laws is ludicrous.