PHIL201 Essay: Ethical Obligations of Businesses and Sweatshops

This essay delves into the ethical complexities surrounding business operations in developing nations, focusing on the case of Nike and its manufacturing practices. It explores the ethical obligations of companies that utilize low-cost labor in countries with weaker labor regulations, examining the implications of sweatshops, hazardous working conditions, and low wages. The essay analyzes the perspectives of various stakeholders, including businesses, governments, and workers, and discusses the moral imperatives of Immanuel Kant and the concept of moral universalism. It highlights the conflicts between profit maximization and human rights, the role of global institutions, and the debate between globalization's proponents and critics. The essay concludes by evaluating the ethical dilemmas faced by businesses and the need for responsible business practices in the context of global trade and manufacturing. The essay also mentions the importance of addressing issues related to worker exploitation and harassment and emphasizes the need for developed countries to support the modernization of financially developing nations without any acts of worker exploitation or harassment.

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Several aspects of the average material lifestyle of Western nations can be attributed to
the business associations with Western countries and Asia. A major portion of apparels, toys,
cloth accessories as well as technology used by the West are produced in various regions of Asia.
However, it has been noted that the commercial sector with significant developing nations like
China and Indonesia or other regions of South East Asia is stated to be crucial for the persistent
economic development of the US as its overall manufacturing activities have been operated in
the developing or economically emergent nations whereby around ten in billions of dollars as
well as huge series of manufacturing plants are operated based on contractual basis with the US
organizations (Shahjahan and Kezar 2013). However, it has been noted that several US citizens
are uninformed on the increasing level of their consumerism has been influencing an intensively
divisive and controversial industry by further intriguing critical disputes and debate relayed to
the sweatshop phenomena. The essay aims to shed light on ethical obligations that businesses
have been undergoing while operating their manufacturing activities on low labour cost or
developing nations by shedding light on Nike organization that has its operations on several
financial developing nations.
The connotations of sweatshops has significantly remained broad by describing any
manufacturing plants which have the potentialities of comprising unreasonably dependable
administrators with hazardous, detrimental working conditions and further implements longer
working durations with low level wages. It must be noted that several developed nations such as
US have been associated with sweatshop production facilities on a large scale as well as a
significant segment of the remaining sweatshops of the world have been located in several
regions in Asia (Arnold and Bowie 2003). However, with the enduring tradition of the West has
given rise to the ethical evaluation of these trade practices that has been incorporating utmost

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significance in recent times. Furthermore, from the business perspective, sweatshops have been
regarded as immensely profitable and beneficial as they tend to capitalize on low labour costs in
developing nations and significantly reducing the cost of production. Several major clothing,
footwear, technology companies such as Nike, GAP, Levi’s have been associated with
sweatshops and further have been accused of several violations and breach of demands and
requirements for justifiable an d moral working conditions in the process of their production
facilities (Arnold and Bowie 2003). It is important to note that the headquarters, consumer base
are effectively situated in the US whereas the manufacturing units of production procedures are
executed in several Asian regions. However, studies reveal that these business organizations
have been encountering several forms of criticisms as being complicit in the mistreatment and
exploitation of labourers as they have been incompetent to rectify the malpractices and
exploitative nature of the manufacturers. However, few internal reports executed by Nike has
revealed that around two thirds of over 170 manufacturing plants manufacturing Converse shoe
products have failed to accomplish the company’s own financial standards for executing
manufacturing activities (Arnold and Bowie 2003). Several studies reveal that sweatshops have
been regarded as a fundamental approach towards modernization, globalization, growth and
development. Though several studies have been suggesting these sustainable global investments
in low economic Asian countries as an significant factor for economic progress, certain reports
claim that several countries have no fundamental aim for effective economic development rather
than such manufacturing facilities which generate low subsistence wages.
Business organizations with manufacturing operations in low economic development
have been undergoing several obligations and challenges with their manufacturing processes
such as severe rate of conflict of interests and issues and complexities related to moral and

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ethical decision making procedures in contemporary business environment. These manufacturing
plants have been consistently paying low level subsistence wages to the employee base and thus
being incompetent to alleviate rural financial deprivation in places like Southeast Asian countries
and Africa. However, modern theorists have posed the need and demands of essential and
productive approaches in order to effectively address such areas of concerns and complexities by
identifying certain relevant moral determinants and their respective aims and objectives. Firstly,
the governance bodies of the US is considered to be liable of safeguarding the interests of their
people including however not limited to the essential human rights and material welfare.
Secondly, the US corporate trade business which employ sweatshop labour in economic
emerging Asian countries have their fundamental concern with utmost profit maximization have
been engaged in conflict and significant dispute situations with the necessity to encourage human
rights and authorities such as providing employees with fair, acceptable and decent working
conditions. Furthermore, the need to assure fundamental conditions for survival for the people of
developing nations have often been encouraged to involve the workers with exploitative
treatment.
At this juncture, the significant issues associated with moral and ethical decision making
must be taken into consideration whereby it has significantly been stated that labourers engaged
in sweatshops deserve enhanced as well as improved working conditions and several conflicting
situations would arise with the deprivation or lack of such compensation factors towards the
labour base (Bressán and Arcos 2017). Studies explicitly demonstrate the unjustified factors for
sweatshop workers to undergo severe hazardous working conditions. However, taking into
consideration the level of inequalities between US along with the developing Asian countries
which have developed several transformations over the course of history, people inhabiting on

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developing Asian countries are considered to be considerably engaged to the marginalized
sectors than those situated in the host nations with or without vital directives and regulations
against sweatshop labour. Furthermore, the Southeast Asian government from the Worker Rights
Consortium perspective have comprehended those stringent labour rights directives would
increase the expenditure costs of product manufacturing and further cause challenges for retailers
to place orders in those regions (Weiss 2014). The anticipated increase in the rate of minimum
wage of over 40% in Southeast Asia has left several manufacturers operating in those regions
who have been immensely dependent on employing factory workers for the minimum rate of US
$ 200 per month have posed high level concerns regarding the potential migration rate of
investment which could reduce the region’s persistent level of competitiveness. However, it must
be noted that the practical moral imperatives stated by Immanuel Kant significantly asserts that
human beings, must be treated as ends in themselves and not essentially as means and thus
sweatshops have been intrinsically being unacceptable as viewed from the deontological
perspectives as the labour force of these manufacturing plants are considered to be treated as
machines in order to develop sustainability and increase the revenues of these businesses
(Kissiah 2014). However, from the moral perception, it has been noted that the growth and
development of the world into a ‘global village’ has stated a vital point yet has remained
unrecognized and vary from the stated moral perspective (Singer 2016). It has further been noted
that if these sweatshop labour system has been prohibited, people of these Asian countries that
have been decisively dependent on these industries for their survival would face severe rate of
complexities in reality (Murphy, Laczniak and Harris 2016).
At this juncture, it is important to recognize the critiques and evaluation stated by several
globalization critics whereby they have perceived such sweatshops as classic examples of the

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‘race to the bottom’ phenomenon (Boylan 2013). It further signifies that this phenomenon takes
place when world economy have been opened to free, unrestricted and unregulated trade
operations. However, critics of unregulated trade reveal that few companies have been
employing slave labour whereby the labour force has been compelled to work without sufficient
pay by the authoritative administrative rules to claim to receive greater revenues by encouraging
these trade practices of labour standards by the Western business organizations (Beauchamp and
Bowie 2014). Critics though refer to the sweatshop labour as the way for business enterprises to
exploit or utilize the rate of poverty as well as desperation of third world nations by allowing the
workforce in order to circumvent the conditions of living wage, labour and organizational rights
along with workplace safety regulations (Balko 2013). Though certain global critics are of the
opinion that only with the prosperity developed by global trade operations, globalization’s
advocates believe that a nation can afford to pose demands for improved working conditions for
its labour force (de Lagerie 2013). However, several anti-sweatshops state the cause of affluence
of West which has result the third world countries to be experiencing continual deprivation
(Zeng 2017). However, it has been considered as a significant responsibility of the developed
countries to bring the financially developing nations undergo modernization without any acts of
worker exploitation or harassment. Nike, being one of the leading footwear manufacturing
companies has been reportedly paying around 16 cents per hour to its labour force employed in
the Wellco Factory in China where it has been noted that the minimum wage for a small family
is about 87 cents (Singer 1972). Moreover, the labour force has been engaged in 11-12 hours
work shifts for the entire week whereby workers are posed fines for declining additional hours of
duty (Khan, Rodrigues and Balasubramanian 2017). The increased rate of global justice has

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further revealed the exposed unsavoury working conditions of Nike and has further found several
instances of minor working over 12 hours shifts.
At this juncture, it is significant to develop the effective and reliable approaches in order
to evaluate the developing hazardous and challenging working conditions for the labour force
engaged in the manufacturing industry of developing third world nations which has been
regarded as the exposures relevant for the ones who are engaged with the laborious work and
strenuous working hours (Phau, Teah and Chuah 2015). Furthermore, certain other major
standpoints in the domain of social sciences have been concentrating on the invalidated
associations whereby health conditions have been regarded as individualistic resource that
further establishes the paid work involvement and quality of the working conditions (Beckert
2017). As a result, employees undergoing vital health issues may be outsourced for jobs
comprising of deprived working conditions which could thus lead to severe deterioration of
health conditions because of previous health deficits and not because of hazardous working
conditions (Corpwatch.org 2018). Thus, such obligations can pose less significance to the
process of outsourcing and can further transform the employment status as well as working
conditions of the manufacturing plants of third world nations by further establishing sequential
order among these forms of exposures and alterations in health as labourers often criticize such
outsourcing procedures (Stewart 2014).
Therefore, from the above discussion it can be concluded that the persistent debatable
issues associated with sweatshop labour has been analytical to the ethical complexities
undergoing the US- Asia trade relations which has been highlighted by the need to negotiate the
level of incompatibilities among the comparative expenditures and beneficiaries that would
occur from the course of interactions between the practical as well as normative insights on such

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concerns. The essay has explicitly evaluated the way modern business enterprises with
manufacturing operations in third world nations experience certain ethical obligations and
dilemma by shedding light on one of the manufacturing operational activities of Nike in certain
nations of Asia.

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