Yes, they could do, but then they might have to have another employee or some other such that means they make a little less profit, so fuck the workers, if they don't want the job there's some other sucker who'll thank me for the chance to be exploited.
That makes sense. I was thinking that this sounds more like a problem with corporate culture, rather than a problem with optimization. If you have a culture that doesn't value your workers, any effective optimization method will lead to outcomes like this.