The lectures on corporate social responsibility were very informative, but also very shocking at times. The poor records of some companies from attitudes towards workers rights to health and safety, and their environmental impact is truly mind-boggling. However it is important to remember that companies are a business. Business has one main aim; to make profit. Competition and the drive to make profit and control market share has resulted in many companies cutting corners on a monumental scale in the name of profit.
Hearing about the appalling conditions suffered by Foxconn’s chinese employees was an example of the appalling lengths companies will go to in the search for greater profits. An article from Huffingpost.com details the massive difference in working practices between Chinese and Brazilian Foxconn employees. With Chinese employees, earning approximately $269 per month, with 60 to 70 hour weeks and 5 days holidays per year. While Brazilian employees receive approximately $540 per month, a maximum 44 hour week and 30 days paid holidays per year.
The argument can be made that this is normal in China for working conditions like this to exist. However it does not make it right. Yet I still find it hard to blame companies like Foxconn entirely for situations like this. At the end of the day the company has only one main objective and that is to make profit. The company will move production to a company like China to save money on cheaper labour, less stringent waste policies etc. This decision will probably be made by a board of management who, if they do not make the most cost-effective decision, could lose their jobs. Moving down the ladder we find a factory manager who, if he does not squeeze what he can from employee’s, may lose his or her job, and down again to the employee on the factory floor who if found to be working slower than a company set limit, may lose their job.
It is all in the name of cost effectiveness and increasing profit. A quick note to add to this is the use of cheaper materials and components shorter life spans to cut costs, but I’ll get back to this. We have left out one important factor in this chain and that is the consumer. We as consumers are right at the top of the chain which leads all the way back to the factory floor worker in China.
Without our demand for goods at cheap prices many of these factories would not be cutting the corners that they do. It is interesting to note that in developed countries like Ireland, we have a high level of social responsibility from companies. We would not accept these standards shown by Foxconn in a factory in Dublin or Cork. Yet it is the demand for Apple’s Ipad or Iphone by consumers in countries like Ireland that create the demand and therefore the acceptance of poor working practices and standards in less developed countries. It seems that the only winners are people in the developed countries and the companies supplying the products. Other than a tiny wage there seems to be no positive for these exploited workers.
As for the cheap materials and components I mentioned earlier, these result in a poorer quality product and a shorter lifespan. This leads to far more waste and a greater cost to the consumer in the long run, from buying products more often to servicing.
While it is clearly worthwhile to regulate and impose rules on companies regarding social responsibility I feel that we as consumers need to take our share of responsibility for this situation. It has happened with Fair trade food products, why not for everything else we as well??
trevorcoffey85 