Corporations should be ethically responsible for ensuring their suppliers are abiding legal safety regulations.

A fatal factory collapse in Bangladesh influenced Walmart’s decision to ban over 200 Bangladesh factories from manufacturing their products due to safety problems, labor violations and unauthorized subcontracting. However, according to U.S. customs records, at least two of the manufacturers have been sending shipments to Walmart. Walmart claims the shipments passed through customs due to confusion surrounding the labeling, but accepted the garments anyway. Meanwhile, one of the manufacturer’s deputy manager directors explained he was not even aware of being black-listed and had sent out another shipment recently.

By continuing to accept shipments from their banned factories, Walmart supports violation of safety regulations and demonstrates poor business ethics by participating in endangering people’s lives. As Milton Friedman suggested in Corporate Ethics and Corporate Governance, a company’s ethical responsibility is to increase profits so long as it is without deception. Walmart failed this responsibility when it received the shipment of garments that passed through customs with deceiving labels. Before continuing any business with Bangladesh manufacturers, Walmart should ensure safety regulations are being followed and refrain from any deceiving activity.

My links:

http://www.propublica.org/article/walmart-accepted-clothing-from-banned-bangladesh-factories

http://site.ebrary.com/lib/ubc/docDetail.action?docID=10187339&page=171