The Manner in Which Child Labour is Being Used - Essay Example

Business units in today’s competitive world need to ensure that strategies are in place to hire and retain the correct manpower. Manpower in an organisation decides the success and failure of an organisation so considering this aspect of business is vital. For this management needs to ensure that while hiring special precaution is taken to ensure that the labour laws in relation to child labour and other laws are abided by. (Yamamura, Birk & Cossitt, 2010) The paper presents the manner in which child labour is being used by international businesses and the manner in which laws are being framed to ensure that they are not exploited. The paper also presents that despite having laws labour are being exploited especially cheap labours which require special attention and focus to ensure that such things don’t happen. Globalization today is gaining prominence as borders are disappearing and countries are entering into treaties with each other which favour free trade. This has made companies expand its reach. Companies are benefitting greatly from the global markets as it is giving them a wide market to cater to and at the same time helping to improve the bottom line. (Ellis, 2001) This is making more companies to get acclimatized to the local conditions and use countries where labour is cheap. The reason for which companies are looking to get global is “because it can buy and sell goods in market which are profitable, distribute those in the best countries which favour them, produce at the lowest cost, get a global outlook and achieve economies of scale”. (Ellis, 2001) It was seen in 1998 that “Chinese manufacturers who were producing goods for companies like Ralph Lauren, Nike and Adidas paid wages at 13 cents per hour whereas the same labour in the US was paid $10 per hour”. (Klein, 2001) thus multinationals companies who are able to understand the local responsiveness better are able to take advantage of it. This was the case due to the fact that China has a huge population. This makes the multinational company tap those. They can get labour at a cheap rate thereby reducing the cost of producing the goods and increasing their profits. Economies slowly realized that it was a case where labours were exploited. This made economies look towards stricter labour laws which looks at a standard from the international point of view and ensures that labour is not exploited. This is making companies take steps which are not correct and exploit labours from poor countries. Seeing the growth in the exploitation of labour has made economies frame labour laws which ensure that companies which are looking towards globalizing don’t exploit the labours thereby depriving them of their privilege. This has brought a check on the manner companies perform as stricter norms ensures that companies don’t take steps where labour is exploited as it would affect the reputation of the company. This goes in a long way to develop a pleasant environment. Complying with all the conditions helps to “bring a paradigm shift and makes it easy for other multinationals to enter the market”. (Muller & Tudler, 2005) It is seen that “multinational companies prefer countries where the wage rate is low so that they can produce at the cheap rate thereby generating more employment” (Klein, 2001) It is evident from the fact that APP who source the napkins to Woolworths are not certified to do so and have been banned in US as China is causing unhealthy competition as the labour are not well paid there thereby giving rise to unhealthy competition. This has forced the China to consider this situation and make the necessary changes in their labour laws so that it matches international standards. This is also seen from a study conducted in this field. It shows that multinational companies have a different understanding when it comes to labour laws as compared to the local requirements. (Edwards & Ferner, 2008) It is seen that “US multinationals tend to ensure that labour laws are given importance to even for products which are imported so that there is equality”. (Edwards & Ferner, 2008) This highlights the importance being laid on labour laws and the different steps being taken by different economies. Developing countries “look towards using cheap labour while producing products and also go to an extent where children are used and the labours are exploited”. (Debdas, 2006) This brings a change in strategy proposed by other economies towards the country as different international norms and rules make it difficult to purchase goods from these countries. An example in this direction is China which has used the cheap labour to expand its reach in the global market. Due to the availability of cheap labor as compared to other nations puts China in a commanding position. (Xiao & Qi, 2008) This is making them to produce products at cheap rates and even anti dumping is not restricting because the country has been able to deliver this at a low price. This is giving them an advantage as compared to other countries as the product is cheap (Xiao & Qi, 2008) especially when it comes to developing and poor Afro-Asian countries. This is on the backdrop that China has strong labor laws which restricts working hours and ensures that labor are not exploited though there have been certain cases against them. The country has also ensured that child labor is not used and they are educated for the future. This country highlights that having proper laws and by using cheap labor is help them grow in the international market and abiding by the international laws. Another example which highlights proper use of labor laws and ensuring that child labor is not exploited is in the case of Google. Google has created a team which looks into the labor laws and ensures that while globalizing special care is taken to ensure over exploitation of labors. Google also has the top management along with different departments like compensation, human resource and the corporate governance board which will ensure that the labor laws is well managed and the company goes well with the society. (Pender, 2004) A study carried out in these field shows that “US business system is shaped by anti-unionism but the US local subsidiaries are shaped in the UK by the conditions there”. (Ferner, Almond & Colling, 2005) This study highlights the importance of adapting to the local laws. Multinationals that follow a similar path are able to understand the requirements better. They are in a better position and their policies are determined by “the sector they are prevalent in, subsidiary policy and this leads to determine their behaviour towards the union which is influenced by the complex interaction of the forces”. (Ferner, Almond & Colling, 2005) Companies previously used to consider countries where cheap labours are available as heavens for production. With the advent of technology and penetration of internet this has become an obstacle and companies are ensuring that all steps are taken to ensure that the different labour laws are being taken care off. Internet has educated the customers “by transmitting information about the product and services thereby changing the usage of internet from the educational purpose to a commercial tool”. (Anderson, 2010) The penetration of internet to vast areas has ensured that consumers get information about the product and when they purchase the product they recall whatever information they have gathered to decide which consumer product to purchase. Consumers also get information about companies which has used unfair labour laws to produce their products. This brings a bad name for the company which results in customers to shift towards some other products. This is making companies performing on the global arena to look towards labour laws as a serious consideration and take steps which will ensure that there is no exploitation of cheap labour and children. This has shaped the way the product market functions as it has “increased transparency as consumer can gather all the information via the internet about each product and company and decide their future course of action accordingly”. (Chaffey, Fiona, Johnston & Mayer, 2008) This has made companies take the international labour laws seriously and have an action plan which ensures that they are not exploited. Even a research conducted shows that “the penetration of technology has changed the face of producer market as it has increased transparency with regard to the methods adopted by a company to produce goods”. (Jose & Carmen, 2002) This has reduced the bargaining power of the producers as consumers can search the internet and gather valuable information about a product and also find out the manner the product was made. This has made the consumer ensure that steps are taken by the companies to ensure that labour laws are looked after. There has also been a study which throws light in somewhat a different direction. The study says that “MNC’s pursuing the local labour laws has created more jobs for the local residents”. (Hansen & Petersen, 2008) This is attributed to the fact that those people who are hired according to the local responsiveness understand the local requirements. This on the backdrop of abiding with the labour laws helps to improve the image of the company and help the poor employees. Multinationals thus helps to generate more jobs and having a stricter labour norms ensures that child labour is not used and employees not exploited. This gets further intensified “by migration which has taken place and caused different culture to integrate and mix thereby making it more difficult for multinationals to understand the local labour laws’. (Brahm, 2005) Companies need to develop tactics to cope with it. Understanding it helps as a guiding force towards success. This is an area which has made labours being exploited to a certain extent but stricter norms in this direction has ensured that such exploitation don’t happen in the future. A study of four companies in the US “General Motors, DuPont, Standard Oil and Sears Roebuck highlight the importance of local labour laws”. (Aharoni, 1996) It reveals that these companies were able to transform itself into multinationals because “they were quick to understand the local labour laws and integrate those with the global factors”. (Aharoni, 1996) This helped them get a first mover advantage. They were able to mould this factors and entering into new markets became easy. Accessibility improved which helped them to used and develop the local talent which could fit in the scheme of things for the organisation. This helped these companies to understand the local responsiveness. They were able to ensure that there was no child labour that was used while producing. This helped them to increase their chain and slowly they were able to have a presence in many countries. Multinationals today, are thus aware of the labour laws and consider it their utmost priority. They try to match the labour laws with the local ones. This brings about restructuring in their basic framework to work thereby creating anew and subtle image. This helps the company as in the future they can enter with a new product and acceptability becomes easier. It expanses the room for growth in the future as the company already understands the requirements. It is thus evident that companies which are working on the global arena understand the labour laws prevalent in different countries and tries to match with their native country. This helps to ensure that there is no exploitation of labour in any country and ensure that there is no child labour involved in any operations. This helps the multinational companies to get easy acceptability and helps to build a long term relationship with the customer. Also, the changes in labour laws with laws being more strict ensures that even the slightest leverage which companies had previously are worked upon. Today, with the development of labour bodies and awareness of consumers it has become difficult for companies to continue who don’t abide by the laws. This has made organization take special care and ensure that there is no exploitation of labour and child labour is not allowed under any circumstances thereby helping to build a good rapport. References Anderson L, 2010, “How the Internet has changed the face of marketing and production of goods”, New York Times Aharoni Y, 1996, “The organisation of global service of MNC”, International Studies of Management & Organisation, Volume 26 Brahm E, 2005, “Globalization”, retrieved on February 19, 2011 from Read More