Ethical behavior is behavior that is based on morals and is the right way to behave. It is choosing the right and good. It is taking pride in one’s honourable acts.
“Standing for 11 to 12 hours while working, underage workers, severe age and gender discrimination, abuse of student and labor dispatch workers, a lack of worker safety, and verbal and physical abuse.”
Does this sound like a labourer’s nightmare to you? Surely conditions like this could never exist in a modern South Korea-based company, right?
Think again.
Samsung Electronics Co. is facing accusations from a US-based labor group known as China Labor Watch who, after thorough investigation of no less than eight supplier factories, is furious at the electronic giant for allowing such appalling, unethical behaviour to exist within it’s operations. It seems as though there is nothing honorable whatsoever about the way the company treats it’s workers.
The investigation took place from May to August 2012, and examined multiple factories in China which employ around 24,000 workers. The report stated that the base salary for these workers is below $250 a month. Considering the 100 hours of overtime that workers allegedly are forced to work, this salary calculated to an hourly wage is a shockingly small amount.
China Labor Watch stated that “Samsung Electronics Co. plants and suppliers in China employed underage workers, forced them to work overtime and exposed them to unsafe conditions”. Furthermore, according to the report filed by the labor company, “The list of illegal and inhumane violations is long” and includes claims that labourers also do not have a voice in their own workplace.
Samsung is luckily being punished for it’s extreme violations against labor laws and is now being forced to reconsider how their products will be manufactured. However, at the time of writing, Samsung had not offered any comments on the report.
Works Cited:
Osborne, Charlie. “Samsung Accused of Labor Violations in China.” CNET News. CBS Interactive, 05 Sept. 2012. Web. 13 Sept. 2012. <http://news.cnet.com/8301-10797_3-57506215-235/samsung-accused-of-labor-violations-in-china/>.
“Samsung Abuses Workers at Its China Plants, Labor Group Says.” Bloomberg. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Sept. 2012. <http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-09-05/samsung-china-workers-physically-verbally-abused-group-says.html>.
http://answers.ask.com/Society/Philosophy/what_is_ethical_behavior
http://www.itworldcanada.com/images/samsung.jpg
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=289279124945&set=a.285862544945.40970.53121919945&type=1&theater