Unethical Practices in H&M: Child Labor and Slavery

CONTEMPORARY ISSUES IN ACCOUNTING
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Institution
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2
Child labor and slavery of H&M
H&M factories have been reported to practice unethical activities such as slavery and child labor.
Since 2000 the company has been registering negative performance following the previous series
of allegations of Chinese slave labor (Lively et al., 2017). In the Swedish branch children aged
14 years have been reported to work for more than 12 hours a day. The management of the
Company claimed to have no guidelines when it comes to selecting employees, but they employ
anyone who is willing to work. 15-year-old girls claimed to be working up to 10 pm which is a
breach of Myanmar’s laws as well as the international labor convention (Doward, 2012). After
the allegations, the management claimed to have taken to curb overworking in the organization.
According to H&M management, children aged 13 to 15 years may do light work as long as it
doesn’t threaten their health and safety or hinder their education. However, the arguments seem
to be invalid as the company exposes the children to a lot of working and forcing them to work
for long hours. This has been a threat to the children health and development, and the company
has been highly criticized for exercising child labor (Doward, 2012).
Most of H&M operations are employee unfriendly. The H&M branch based in China has been
associated with various allegations of slavery. The management does not involve the employees
in the process of decision making. The employees have been exposed to multiple unethical
activities such as working for long hours and sub-par wages. The practices of slavery in various
branches are associated with racism (Lively et al., 2017). The slavery practiced in the company
has resulted in multiple strikes which have seen a number of them being gunned down. The
brand image of the Company is experiencing mass destruction resulting in a low volume of sales
and declining profit margins. Due to the involvement in unethical practices, the company is
currently registering declining performance and losing popularity continuously. Various