This news story from the globe and mail is about the Swedish furniture giant Ikea. Apparently the company benefitted from forced prison labour in East German in the 80’s, and sis now expressing regret. After a documentary that aired in Sweden revealed Ikea’s little secret, the corporate giant started looking into their suppliers production methods throughout that time frame. Ikea is still looking into the problem for further details, but it is confirmed that Ikea bought goods from suppliers using forced prison labour.
I find this new article very interesting because it relates to the classroom discussion on business ethics. Obviously the use of forced prison labour is unethical, but i find it odd that Ikea is only now expressing regret. Apparently Ikea had no idea how the products they sold where manufactured, but if that’s the truth then it is only because of their negligence. Either the company didn’t have the quality and safety standards necessary to check out their suppliers, or someone in the company kept the prison labour a secret.
This relates many comm101 student’s initial blog post regarding the ethics of outsourcing manufacturing to third world countries. I hope that in modern business, appropriate control systems are in place to ensure that this sort of unethical production is not happening anymore, and that employees are working on their own accord, in appropriate conditions, for fair wages.