Sweatshop Labor - Essay Example

Sweatshop Labor al Affiliation: Sweatshop Labor With the increasing levels of competition in the local and international markets, companies are under intensive pressure to provide the customers with high quality products and at very low prices. Some firms have gone a notch higher and invested heavily in the modern technology. However, they are yet to meet the increasing demand for cheap products. In order for these companies to produce cheap products, they are relocating their production plants to countries that have cheap labor (Esbenshade, 2004).

However, they are forced to pay their employees very low salaries and even use child labor in order to maintain their competitive advantage in the market. The company ethical guidelines affect the whole operations of the business. When the guidelines are clear to all subordinates, the employees are unlikely to make unethical decisions. However, in case the company leaves the ethical issues to be decided by the supervisors, they are likely to engage in unethical issues which might end up tarnishing the reputation of the company in the market (Esbenshade, 2004).

Therefore, ethical perspective such as the minimum salaries and age of the employees ensures that decision made inside the company’s premises observe these guidelines. A company influences its ethical environment by setting the standards to be met by the employees. When the standards are beyond what the employees can achieve, the subordinates are likely to engage in unethical behavior in order to achieve them (Esbenshade, 2004). This explains why some employees in Bangladesh working for one of the Wal-Mart subsidiary opted to come with their children in the workplace in order for them to help their parents to reach the set targets.

ReferencesEsbenshade, J. L. (2004). Monitoring sweatshops: Workers, consumers, and the global apparel industry. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.