Is Child Labor Ethical

From a philosophy of management

perspective

Is it ethical to deprive poor families in under-developed nations from deriving revenue from their children's labor?

Is it ethical for major corporations to derive revenue from children's labor?

Good and Bad are relative to culture

“Good" is what is socially approved in a given culture

“Bad” is not viewed as wrong, but as different

Child labor isn't good or bad objectively; rather it's good in a society that approves of it but bad in one that disapproves of it (Gensler, 2011)

In all situations, one should act in a way that generates the greatest benefit for the greatest number of people

Major corporations with overseas subcontractors (such as Ikea in Bangladesh, Unilever in India, and Nike in China) have been criticized often with substantial negative publicity, when children as young as 10 have been found working in the subcontractor’s facilities. The standard response is to perform an audit and then enhance controls so it does not happen again. In one such case, a 10-year-old was fired. Shortly thereafter, the family, without the 10-year-old’s contribution to the family income, lost its modest home, and the 10-year-old was left to scrounge in the local dump for scraps of metal (Heizer & Render, 2010).

UtilitarianismUtterly poor families are only able to survive when the children can workIt would be unethical to prevent them from doing soFamily remains intact as a result of the child’s incomeU.S. and European consumers obtain inexpensive goods from their retailers

Cultural RelativismThe ethical thing to do might be to refrain from imposing our moral standards on a developing country and force children to rummage through the local dump (Mojonnier, 2012)

DisclaimerIt would be unethical to treat any worker, adult of child to sweatshop working conditions or forced servitudeInternational corporations must guard against having suppliers that mistreat their workers

Business ethics can be challenging Utilitarianism and Cultural Relativism

are just two ethical theories Rights Theory - The rights set forth

by a society are protected and given the highest priority

Deontological Theory - A corporation should follow their obligations to another society because upholding one's duty is what is considered ethically correct