Reading Alex’s blog post Walmart’s Woes, which addresses the topic of unfair pay and horrendous working conditions in factories in developing nations, I could not help but consider if ethical treatment of employees should be left to corporations, or if third party (namely government) intervention is necessary.
In an absolutely free-market economy wages and working conditions would be influenced solely by the producers and consumers. If this were the case, it would be the responsibility of the corporations to act ethically, and the consumers to voice their opinion when they violated these values. This is not a real-world situation however, as there is government influence in almost all aspects of our lives, and labour laws are not exempt from this.
So governments pass labour laws protecting the workers in their country and everyone is happy again, unfortunately it is not that easy. What happens when a government does not care enough to put these types of laws into effect? We then need to turn to international law, but such laws are often difficult or impossible to enforce.
Labour laws are crucial to protect workers in developing nations from being exploited, but when labour laws fail, it falls on the shoulders of the corporations employing these groups to protect their workers by paying them fairly and making sure their working environment is safe.
