Ethical Concerns in the Global Clothing Industry (Essay Sample)

Ethical Concerns in the Global Clothing Industry
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Introduction and Market Overview:
With the advent of globalization, the world’s apparel industry has rapidly grown. Currently, the industry in worth over 1.7 trillion US Dollars forming one of the most significant segments of the world economy (Bernhardt 2013). Not only does the industry create clothes for populations all over the world, numerous jobs and employment opportunities are also created through the operation of this industry. According to Lopez, Roberson and World Bank (2016), garment and fashion industry employs 25 million people in more than 100 countries. Fair wear Foundation., (2014) traces the origin of clothing and textile business in the UK although the art of producing clothing clothes later passed to North America and Europe after the streamlining of fabric manufacturing processes in those regions. Asian states also commercialized their financial prudence and took steps for industrialization and growth of this sector.
Today, Hong Kong, China, Japan, and India are some of the leading textile producers in the world. Niinimäki and Hassi (2011) attribute this to the availability of cheap labor and variety of clothing brands in these countries. Labor is one of the most substantial factors of production determining the extent to which industry can grow. Brand, however, determines consumer purchase decisions and behaviors. As noted by Niinimäki, and Hassi (2011), Valentino, Versace, Marc Jacobs, Guess, Drior, Chanel, and Prada are some of the top trending brands in the clothing market. Consumers often associate them with quality and elegance making them sell expensively in the market.
Ethical issue:
Though appears organized, the reality of this industry in the third world countries is completely antipodal. Many producers in unindustrialized nations work long hours under dogged conditions for dollar pennies that are far less than a standard living wage (Lopez-Acevedo & Robertson 2012). According to Bernhardt et al. (2009), the issues of working hours, wage rate and their relevance to business law and ethics has for long remained a big ethical question in these states. Workers are forced, if not by themselves, then by their employers, to work for lengthy hours that are not even commensurate to their actual pay. For instance, a study on wages conducted in over more 100 garment suppliers in ten Asian countries (Vaughan-Whitehead 2011: 26-28), established that virtually 20 percent of the experiential organizations reported having to suspend wage payments, over 50 percent paid less than required amounts, especially for overtime. However, the remaining 30 percent reported complete nonpayment of social security contributions. Based on the findings, the researchers could establish that workers or employees were obliged to work for extremely long hours to earn, even the legally accepted minimum wage. Evidently, this is one ethical concern that is not limited to Asian countries alone. As confirmed by another study in the United States’ clothing industry, nearly 43 percent of workers is not certain with their legal minimum wage entitlements (American Apparel & Footwear Association 2014). The implication is that long working hours with poor wage rates under strenuous conditions is not an ethical challenge in third world countries only, developed countries like the US are also victims of the same circumstance.
In most circumstances, employees often work between 10 to 12 hours, although sometimes they may extend for up to 15 to 18 hours per day. When factories face order cutoff date, they often extend working hours to meet deadlines. Rani et al. (2013) give an example with Chinese clothing industry workers who frequently work seven days a week in peak business seasons, and occasionally they work non-stop for close to 13 or 14 hours per day. These people, according to Lopez-Acevedo and Robertson (2012), often sew clothes until their arms feel stiff and sore. In Thailand, on the other hands, garment employees every so often have to work a night shift and a day shift (Caruso et al. 2004:13). Overtime is always mandatory and if employees cannot make the extra hours they are penalized, abused and can also be dismissed Lidl, a clothing company in Bangladesh is also reported in Panorama’s (2013:1) article to be paying £2 only for 19-hour job performed by its workers. According to the researcher, some employees are actually enclosed or locked in the factory until they accomplish their assigned duties. The global garment industry has, thus, never been able to streamline its work time and work conditions effectively.
Consequently, the workforce’ health and safety is put in jeopardy. Eye strain, debilitating overuse injuries and exhaustion are common with the garment companies. Usually, these are attributed to poor ergonomics, the persistent pressure to meet workload targets and long hours to remain at par or go over the constantly changing environments. The illnesses resulting from these conditions are, however, rarely diagnosed or treated. The reason is that most employees often fear for the security of their job positions and wage entitlements. Taking some time to recuperate from the illness or seek medical assistance may make get fired or cause a cut in their wages. In Bangladesh, for instance, over 170 workers died, and many more got hurt in clothing workshops fires between 2004 and 2006 (Jauch &Traub-Merz 2006). According to the reporters, these factories lacked emergency exits; workers were ensnared in the plants and most perished in a mass panic. A similar incident happened toward the end of the year 2012. Over 112 people died in a garment factory in Bangladesh during a fire incident. This is an indication of poor working conditions in the global clothing industry. Employees’ value is long lost. Same is the role the key stakeholders like employers and the management.
The responsibility of stakeholders:
Business decisions of the companies in the apparel industry, like other industries, are determined by the roles and responsibilities undertaken by the key stakeholders in promoting ethical and legal standards. Surrounded by both social and commercial responsibilities, a company must strive to strike a balance between these two business decisions since they are equally essential to its survival and growth. Apart from emphasizing the activities that directly support business objectives, the market or the company in question must emphasize social objectives as well. That is promoting corporate social responsibility which comes in handy in determining the fate of an organization. For long, organizations that participate actively in corporate social responsibility (CSR) have had a good record of business success. CSR promotes public relations which are a significant marketing strategy.
Employers, employees, governments, the International Labor Authorities (ILA) and the Society for Business Ethics (SBE) are some of the key stakeholders overseeing employment in the clothing industry. SBE is a not-for-profit organization founded in the early 1980’s with specific roles of promoting and advancing ethics in business (Crane & Matten 2007). SBE operates worldwide providing a platform in which moral, ethical, legal and philosophical business issues are deliberated and analyzed. Relative to the clothing industry, SBE has the responsibility of creating awareness on the acceptable business practices. The organization accomplishes this through publications and organization business conferences on annual basis. ILA are such agencies as International Labor Organization (ILO) dealing with cross-border job opportunities, international labor standards and social protection. Their main interest is to ensure workers are treated well by establishing international labor rules.
Based on their business positions, these individuals are ethically mandated to undertake specific roles and responsibilities. Governments and the International Labor Authority, for instance, are charged with the responsibilities of coming up with appropriate laws and regulations outlining the minimum wages attributable to employees, stating maximum length of time an employee should work. Overseeing whether target organizations obey these regulations is also a key responsibility of governments and ILA.
Business Ethics Organizations, on the other, must set ethical standards defining acceptable and unacceptable working conditions, the length of working hours and the appropriate pay limits attributable to workers. Beyond formulation, these organizations strive to educate not only the public but also the employing firms on these about these ethical standards as well as their significance. It is, thus, the responsibility of the firms (employers) to uphold these ethical and legal standards employment. Usually, this responsibility is accomplished by educating employees about their expectations relating to working hours and advancing commensurate pay based on the work accomplished within a given time limit. However, before settling on these lay-downs, employers must ensure working conditions around the firm are favorable. Employees, on the other hands, should play their part by ensuring that they accomplish their duties within allocated time.
Responses:
Contemporary global and national deliberations on minimum wages in clothing industry have emphasized their application, coverage together with the levels at which they ought to be set to reflect fair pay to the workforce and define the equilibrium for trades (Belser & Sobeck 2012: 105). The European Commission, for instance, made a recommendation that all its Member States have a duty to ...