In our world some of the largest companies and businesses are producing their products in sweatshops. Wal-Mart, JC Penney, Sears, and Nike are just a few of the big name companies that use sweatshops. Sweatshops are work establishments where employees are forced to work extremely hard in poor conditions for low wages. These companies and businesses that have sweatshops are taking advantage of their workers from overseas countries and it is unfair for them (Background). Therefore, something certainly has to be done and they need to be put to a stop.
The worst area in the world for child labor is in third world countries, because the children are dropping out of school so they can get some money so they don’t starve to death. Child labor laws were wrong because they force children to work 16 hours or more each day and up to 60 hours a week, and they work these long hours in hazardous, toxic conditions. There are many reasons why child labor exists today, and why it existed long ago, two of the main reasons being poverty and unemployment. Lots of families will rely on their children for their basic necessities such as food, water, and housing, something they should of thought about before they had a child of their own. The children are recruited because they usually don’t know their human rights, do the hardest, most dangerous work without even knowing it; they also accept low pay.
Although, who are to blame for all the tragedies that has taken place in this industry. Opponents of the garment industry argue that factory owners do not ensure health and safety regulations in these factories. Most of the garment factories are not built suitably, and workers are forced to work in harsh conditions. However, some writers argue that workers seem to prefer working in a factory over working in their previous jobs on the farm or construction sites where they would work in the sun for 14 hours a day. Low levels of work safety pose a massive problem.
Although a lot of developments have been made in rules and protocols regulating those factors, one that is still remain having a lot of loopholes is the people factor. The known ethical issue regarding this factor is sweatshop. It is the term used for defining factories that give their employees “low wages for long hours and under poor conditions” (Definition of sweatshop in English no date, p. Online). This problem is mostly happen in under-developed or developing countries, such as Indonesia and Bangladesh. Companies or corporations choose to do their manufacturing process in these countries because of the cheap labor, availability of productive workers and the lack of law on working conditions.
Also, fast fashion puts a strain on our environment because of all the waste it causes. That is why today there are companies that are fair trade. This means that the people making the clothes are actually paid what they deserve, and are treated how they should. I know if more people knew the
3 Disregard for workers’ health at the factory was sufficiently widespread that some employees were required to remain on their feet for so long at their workstations that their legs swelled until they could hardly walk: “‘It’s hard to stand all day,’ said Zhao Sheng, a plant worker’””(Kates). Another ethical issue that is very common in sweatshops is child labor. The International Labor Organization has estimated that “250
The industrial revolution was a period during the 18th and 19th century in England where many changes had happened. Such changes consist of agriculture, mining, transport and technology which allowed both detrimental and beneficial impact on people lives. At those times the working surroundings for many people were harsh, also for the children. The children have to start working at a very young age, they work without any protection and they have been treated very poorly. Not only that the amount shillings they make, barely makes a difference for their family to survive.
They had difficulty regulating standards of workmanship and maintaining schedules for completing work. Workers sometimes sold some of the yarn or cloth in their own profit. As the demand in cloth increased, merchants often had to compete with one another for the limited amount of workers available in manufacturing, which increased merchants’ costs. As a result, merchants turned increasingly to machinery, which was powered by the steam engine, for greater production and also turned to factories for central control over their workers.
from the Ôcompany storeÕ many times at higher prices than necessary. This created circulation of money from the company to the laborer back to the company. The miners worked for obvious reasons: to supply themselves and their families with shelter, food and clothing. They relied on company power to supply a means of employment. However, the company in turn relied on the laborers, because without them the company would have no means by which to excavate the coal and continue the production process.
However there was problem with the manual work, all the raw materials and money are in place, but the factories demand man power. As a result slaves are taken to factories to work, and in many cases Child Labour became popular. These children often came from orphanages or families who work in the factories or mill houses. These kids were either orphans or from poor family which can not find any other jobs. Therefore they have no choice but to stay here, this is one of the reasons why children had to work.