Samsung accused of mistreating workers in China
Samsung, one of the largest electronic companies in the world, has been accused of mistreating their workers using child labour.
As a business, Samsung has responsibilities towards their employees and the environment they work in. Unfortunately, Samsung has not withheld any of them which is a violation of business ethics. Through an investigation it has been discovered that the Chinese employees have been working for more than 100 hours per month and that “children were knowingly employed”. In addition, six of Samsung’s plants and two suppliers were not following safety precautions such as providing the workers with protective clothing and were mistreating them (for example prohibiting them from sitting during shifts and a documentation of physical and verbal abuse has been recorded).
I feel that this form of business is unacceptable and violates business ethics because all businesses have to make sure that their working environments are safe. Samsung has violated these workers rights and it has been claimed that Samsung or its suppliers knew that their underage workers were using forged identity cards. This shows the company’s irresponsibility in terms of monitoring the authenticity of their workers and creating a safe working environment even in conditions where “high product demand led to overtime”. On my part, this is not a valid excuse for any business as they should constantly be supervising working environments and need to be able to work around situations like “high product demands” in an effective manner which does not violate their worker’s rights.
Article: http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/story/2012/09/05/tech-samsung-labour.html
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