When talk about business ethics, I will think about the
child labors because the NIKE factory has been the news about using the child
labors to manufacture the Sport Shoe. They are aims for the quantity but not
the quality of the shoes. And yet they are producing the Sport shoes with
unethical mind-set. Nevertheless, they are promoting the shoes with the charity
events. They are really the ‘Money Mind –Set Organization’.
For the child labors,
I will think of the poem, ‘the cry of the child’. Some of the part of the poem
that describes the heart suffers moment of the child as below:
‘Do ye hear the children weeping, O my brothers,
Ere the sorrow comes with years….
They are weeping in the playtime of the others
In the country of the free….
‘How long’, they say, ‘how long, O cruel nation,
Will you stand, to move the world, on a child’s heart?’
BY Elizabeth Barret Browning,
1843. In her poem, she expressed the bitter life of the child in the sense of being a child labor.
According to U.S. Department of
Labor’s (2012) stated that Child labor under international standards means all
work performed by a person who is below the age of 15. However, some countries
practice the law which the child labor is the workforce below the age of 18. In
the context of International standards that the person who age below 18 and
perform the following practice:
i.
All forms of slavery or practices similar to
slavery, such as the sale or trafficking of children, debt bondage and serfdom,
or forced or compulsory labor, including forced or compulsory recruitment of
children for use in armed conflict
ii.
The use, procuring or offering of a child for
prostitution, for the production of pornography or for pornographic purposes
iii.
The use, procuring or offering of a child for
illicit activities in particular for the production and trafficking of drugs
iv.
Work which, by its nature or the circumstances
in which it is carried out, is likely to harm the health, safety or morals of
children
Developing nations and
globalization has led to the consequent exploitation of labor especially with
children. The work condition for the child labors is very bad and is normally
below the safety standards, the job is insecure, low wages and low standards of
living. The employer is unethical and they ignored the human right of the
children.
In my view of the human right of
children, the employer should not employ the child labors. Child labor is
terribly harmful for children both physically and mentally as it stops them
form receiving a decent of education. They will not have a fun and enjoying
childhood period. The children will just know how to work and earn money with
those terribly experiences since their young time. No one in the develop
country will know their bitter and suffering childhood’s histories.
The causes and beginnings of the
child labors started this process were enflamed from drastic change of economic
situation; poverty and starvation were the primary result. For surviving in the
change world, the little children have to stand out and work. As a matter of
fact, child labor first began during the period of urbanization,
industrialization and war during the early 1900’s. Industrialization caused
child labor when power driven machines replaced hand labor for the making of
manufactured items and a new source of labor to run the machines was needed.
Children have the high potential because they learned the operation of the
machines is faster than the old folk. The cost of hiring the child labor is far
cheaper than hiring the skillful workers or adult workers. The unethical
employers trained the child labors to be loyal to the company since their young
time because the children are easy to be educated since they know nothing about
the changing world.
In addition, wars occurred also
bring the children into the dark side of the shadow where they have to take
part directly in hostilities by being child soldiers. Child soldiers are
normally used in the support roles such as spies and messengers. Due to the
globalization, the percentage of child labors has been decrease in certain
extends but in the developing countries, they still have increased in the
percentage of child labors. There is millions of children work just to help
their families but not in harmful or exploitative ways.
According to ILO (2012) states
that about 150 million children aged 5 to 14 which is as high as 16 percent of
all children in the age group, are being involved in child labor. This group of
children is the group that not receiving proper nutrition or care due to most
of them looks so sick. They are denied the chance to be children. The ILO
estimates that 1.2 million children are trafficked each year, and this act has
been internationally recognized as a major human right violation. It has been
occurred throughout the region in the world.
The pity and helpless children
are moved around the world as they are packed and ship through the Cargo. They
are beings sold, bought and exchanged like the goods in the market. Then the
people will send them to different regions or workplaces to work. Most of the
child labors are working in the agriculture sector. Children working with the
agriculture must face the longest hours of extreme temperatures as the
workplace is under the direct exposure of sunlight. Besides that their health
are at risk because they will be directed the exposure of the pesticides and
insecticides. The child labors is that famous in the agriculture sector because
they are cheap labor, the employers have just needed to pay little amount of
salary or some even not paying a single cent. The child labors have inadequate
food, water and sanitation.
The agriculture sector is not the
worst sector to work because the child labors who work in the mining and
quarrying will be more suffered. They have to be suffered from extremely high
illness and injury during the work in progress. What they do in the mining or
quarrying? They will require breaking up rocks, and wash, sieve and carrying
ore. Many of the child labors are require working underground setting the
explosives and carrying loads. It is really unfair to the children as the
highly dangerous tasks are being carried by the children. The adults should be
the one who responsible for this kind of task.
Last form of child labor is
prostitution. This is the official and commercial sexual exploitation of
children especially the female children. A minor group of child who are less
than 18 years old performs the services of prostitution just for the
self-financial benefit. Furthermore, there are situations in which the people
travel to foreign countries in order to avoid law against the child
prostitution which are present in their country. This is so called the child
sex tourism.
As the conclusion of the blog, I
would like to rise again how serious if the children has no childhood
experiences. They will not know what fun is, what the enjoyable moment is and
what the enjoyable experience is for their childhood. They will bring the
sadness and hard work from suffer life into the end of their life even the
coffin. So, the child protection association has to protect the human right of
the children.
References
U.S. Department of Labor’s (2012). List of Goods Produced By
Child Labor or Forced Labor. Published by Department of Labor, USA
