Child Labor Is Condemned Across the Globe,

Child labor is condemned across the globe, but is it fair for a multinational to terminate relationships with suppliers when incidents arise regarding the use of child workers, regardless of the implications to the community as a whole?

Yes it is fair for multinational companies to end relationships with suppliers when incidents arise regarding the use of child labor. It is more the responsibility of the local governments to monitor the use of child labor than it is of the company itself. There are often rules and regulations within each country that have to be followed and these would be the responsibility of the local government to enforce.

Every company that does business around the world has to be cognizant of the rules and regulations in each place that they do business. They also have to be aware of how things get done in certain places affects them everywhere. For example, in the case of Nike they had to take into consideration when making their decision about what to do, not only how it would affect the country of Pakistan but it also had to think about how it would affect the other places they did business.

If Nike continued to do business with Saga then there was a great possibility that the other companies that Nike did business with would not like the fact that child labor was being used and then they would refuse to do business with Nike. Nike had to maintain the policies that they had set down in regards to child labor. The consequences of them not upholding these policies would have been detrimental to them. Nike's main responsibility is to their bottom line. Each government in the country that they do business is responsible for the workers in that country. If the rules and regulations that have been established in each country do not met the rules and regulations of a particular company and there have been attempts to remedy the situation to no avail then the company has no other choice but to sever ties with those who can hurt them.

2. lf parents in economically deprived areas willingly allow their children to work in order to survive, should it be inappropriate for international companies to allow this?

Parents allowing their children to work at an inappropriate age should not be tolerated. International companies have a responsibility to no one else but themselves and their customers. A child being allowed to work under age is a problem of the local government and thus it is their responsibility to remedy it. Companies that do business internationally have the responsibility to investigate each country that they chose to do business in and make sure that the rules and regulations that exist are consistent with those of the company. If there are for example, no child labor laws in a particular country and a company does not want child labor used then they should not do business there.

In the international marketplace, child labor is frowned upon. This makes those countries who promote child labor not well respected around the globe. Companies often chose not to have dealings with those countries that support the use of children as workers because of the fact that it is so frowned upon across the globe. Companies often want to distance themselves from any controversy that surrounds child labor because in the end it is not good for their bottom line. Just like in this case, once the public found out about the children being used to hand stitch soccer balls for sixty cents a day there were protests everywhere. The consequence of these protests were that those who were upset where no longer buying Nike products and thus Nike had to take action in order to attempt to remedy the situation. The last thing that a company wants is its customers boycotting it products because of labor issues in another countries half way around the world. Companies have to keep their customers happy so that they continue to buy their products and the company makes money.

3. Do international companies have an obligation to help rectify these problems? lf not, why not? lf so, to what extent and in what forms?

Companies that do business worldwide do not have an obligation to help rectify child labor issues in the countries in which they do business. They do on the other hand have an obligation to investigate the laws of the country before they begin doing business there. If they have done due diligence and they later find that the country is not enforcing the laws as they should be then they may chose to help remedy that situation but they would not be obligated to do so.

Attempting to help remedy a particular situation may be beneficial for everyone involved but in the end it may not work out. In this case when Nike first realized that there was an issue with children being used to hand stitch soccer balls for sixty cents a day their first reaction was to help rectify the problem. They undertook a range of initiatives in order to deal with the concerns, including the development and application of a challenging code of conduct to advance labor conditions among the employees at its suppliers' plants worldwide. But when this didn't seem to help they decided to sever ties with such plants.