One of the leading sportswear companies, Nike, is facing issues regarding physical and verbal abuse towards workers in Indonesian factories, similar to the ones in sweatshops in 2005. Workers claimed that supervisors would “throw shoes at them” and “slap them in the face.” These issues are similar to the ones back in 2005, as workers are also underpaid, making around “50 cents an hour.” Although agreements and contracts are made, Nike is sometimes disallowed from inspecting factories or introducing their own code of conduct. Although these factories and its services are hired by Nike to produce their products, supervisors in the factories are still technically working for Nike and these situations are definitely examples of poor business ethics. Physical and verbal abuse is unethical and is a serious problem.

Nike has already resolved many of those issues portrayed in 2005, improving conditions at around 1,000 overseas factories. Nike’s market power is enormous, so it would be unreasonable to say that they cannot fix these issues. Solving these issues regarding abuse towards workers could enhance Nike’s brand name again as ethics plays a large part in a company’s reputation. A better public impression could potentially boost sales.

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Work Cited:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/13/nike-faces-new-worker-abuse-indonesia_n_896816.html

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