In the second week of January 2013, Nike’s suppliers in Indonesia were seen resisting the pay rises for their factory employees in Indonesia.

After the protests from the labour unions in Jakarta last year, the authorities in Indonesia raised the minimum wages of labour to 2.2m rupiah a month. After the enforcement date, it was noticed that six out of the forty Nike’s factories in Indonesia were resisting the pay rise.

It was also noticed that the employees of those factories were intimidated to sign a document stating their agreement to forgo the pay rise.

Also, some factories got the employees to sign on what they called an attendance sheet. The same sheet was later used as a document stating that they were fine with the company’s reluctance to approve the pay rise.

It is worth a thought that is it ethical for a company to resist a pay rise when it can easily afford it? Does not Nike have a moral responsibility to pay its employees what they deserve? Considering the unemployment in Indonesia, is it not exploitation of labour? Getting people to sign on an attendance sheet and then later using it as a document to support their resistance to pay rise. Is it ethical? Intimidating employees to support the company. Is it ethical?