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The company is Nike and the ethical issue is underage workers. https://www.wsj.com/articles/cambodia-factories-grapple-with-issue-of-underage-workers-1388356528 Company Background: Summarize relevant information regarding the business and its history. Crisis Details: Summarize the ethical crisis details. What stakeholders were involved? What actions did they take? What were the results of those actions? Ethical Issues and the Law: Explain the ethical issues surrounding the crisis. Did the company act within the basic tenants of the law? Include any related legal issues.
Expert Answer
Q1) Below is the history of the child labor practices at Nike and how the policies have evolved over years –
- The issue of employing underage workers waa first discovered in 1996 by Life Magazine highlighting the employement of child workers by Nike to make Soccer balls in Pakistan
- In 1998, Nike raises the minimum age for workers at its footwear factories to 18 to curb the issue
- In 2010, Nike revised its policy to employ workers with a minimum age restriction of 16 provided they aren’t in hazardous working environment.
Q2) The ethical crisis is about the issue of employment of underage workers in garment factories in Cambodia. Below are the various reasons behind the employment of underage workers –
1. Faking of the age related details by the workers to get employed in the factories by producing fake details
2. Changing of birth dates in the records by factory staff to employ underage workers
3. Employing underage workers citing then fact that they were not employed in hazardous work
4. Lack of proper scrutiny by Government or by labor organizations to verify the details and employ the workers
5. Employing workers for long hours almost reaching to 80 hours a week
Q3) Below are the stakeholders involved –
1. Underage workers
2. Parents/guardians of the workers
3. Factory management and recruiting staff/factories
4. Anti-Labor organizations
5. Government
Q4) The actions taken include registering with Better Factories Cambodia program to montior factory conditions, regulate the employment of underage workers, avoid making them work for long hours etc.
Apart from this, the factory management is planning to identify ways to verify the birth details and records of the workers being employed.
The results of these actions include better scrutiny on the workers being employed, better working conditiions etc.
Q5) The company didn’t act within the basic tenants of the law by employing underage workers for long hours in a factory under a hazardous environment.
There should be stricter rules regarding the age, working conditions, safety precautions to be taken etc.
