Child Labour 

We have become increasingly aware of and distributed by social and environment impact of international business arrangements. In this blog I will investigate the ethical issues on children labour within international business.

Children labour is a very important problem in the world. The term child labour is often defined as work that deprives children of their childhood, their potential and their dignity and that is harmful to their physical and mental development.

This can include work that is mentally, physical, socially or morally dangerous and harmful to children. This can also affect their schooling, this is due to the fact that they are deprives therefore the opportunities to attend school.

There are many different types and forms of children labour, this involves children being enslaved, separated from their families they are usually exposed to serious hazards and illnesses, in many cases children are left to fend for themselves at a young age.

The worst forms of children labour are that in some countries for example Africa children are forced of recruited in armed conflict.

Children are also offered as prostitutes this can for the production of pornography or pornographic performances. Children can be used for trafficking of drugs. All across the world there millions of children that are forced to do extremely hazardous work in harmful conditions that will be putting their health, education, personal and social development at risk.

Their children have to face very difficult circumstance;

>  Full time work at a young age

> Excessive working hours subjection to psychological, verbal, physical and sexual abuse

>  Limited or no pay

>  They have no chance to escape from the poverty cycle- this is due to them having no access to education

Children labour is a large problem across the world, from my research the international labour organization states that there are 215 million children labourers aged between 5 and 17 years old. From the figures they say that 115 million are estimated to work in the worst forms of children labour. 53 million children fewer than 15 are in hazardous conditions for example sweat shops. 70% of children workers carry out unpaid work for their families.

There are many reasons that children why children go into child labour, the main factor is that their families are poor and their labour is necessary for their survival. They don’t have access to education and it can b expensive and some parents feel that what children will learn is irrelevant to the families and their everyday lives and futures. Child labour also perpetuates poverty this is due to the fact that they don’t have the opportunity to go to school.

The international law is to protect children and as formed on the basis of our work against the worst forms of children labour.

From my research I have found that currently in places such as Africa, India, Mexico and Brazil. They work mainly in agriculture or manufacturing sector of business and these children are employees by allot of multinational corporations. For example Nike, Gap, Adidas, Walmart, Primark and Asda. Therefore from this can give there company name a bad ethical image and thus could result in customers not buying their products which could have a secondary effect that they can loss profit. The reasons why businesses use children labour is that it can lower cost of production line however it could result in legal conflicts and loss of custom for being unethical.

Examples of children Labour and businesses:

Nike is world recognized sporting clothing business however in recent year they have had a very bad public image, for example they were famously involved with employing young children to make their footballs. The young children were implied by Nike to stitch together footballs by hand in Pakistan and Cambodia. This information effected there brand and as a result they lost customers therefore sales and they have changed their labour force to over 16s however there is no real knowing this statement is true.

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one of the largest clothing retailers gap they were found to be using children at a very young age and they were used for the production line of their clothes. This damaged the company because they had made a name and reputation as being an ethical company that looks after their workforce. Therefore from this the brand is not seen as being an ethical business anymore.

Primark gas been seen using children in their factors, this was shown on a panorama report on BBC1, it shown a 11 year old Tamil girl at the Bhavani Sagar refugee camp she was sewing sequins on a shirt from the secret possession range. After the programme was shown Primark announced that they have sacked three of their clothing suppliers in India. They have stated that they continue to buy form good supplies in the same region. The Primark better lives foundation will provide financial assistance to organisations devoted to improving the lives of young people, including these identified. Forms a statement from Primark they are an ethical organisation that helps give people in the developing world a higher standard of living and a better quality of life.