Joanne McGuinness, from the shopworkers' union Usdaw, said: "Our members will look at this as the directors operating a 'one rule for us, another rule for the workers' policy".
As ever, the latest case raises the spectre of double standards: it's one rule for them, another rule for the rest of us, as goes the popular refrain.
The Chamber's "one rule for corporations, another rule for everybody else" motto has come at the expense of our entire financial system, ill-treated workers and injured consumers.
For one thing, rules, norms and ends cannot cover every contingency that might arise; for another, rules, norms and so on, themselves need to be interpreted and applied.
Despite the similarities it's clear that for many anti-immigration advocates there is one rule for Britain and another rule for everyone else: we can go there but they can't come here.
But there cannot be one rule for Washington and another rule for everyone else, MacDonald argues.
As Russia's president, Dmitry Medvedev, argued, "you cannot have one rule for some and another rule for others".Yet the West is right to respond firmly to Russia's new belligerence by refusing to recognise the new states.
"TfL restricts us so much - we can't do anything - so why should it be one rule for us and another rule for them?" Mr Mirah pleaded.
"It feels to a great many people, including midwives, that there is one rule for them and another rule for everybody else".
