Business Ethics: Samsung and child labor. Identify the alternatives: What are the other alternatives? (Use your moral imagination)

Stakeholders are those bunch of people who were directly or indirectly affected by a business decision. Samsung, by employing children, affects more than just those who are directly involved. To start with, children themselves are the ones most directly affected by this decision and like mentioned in the article "These investigations have uncovered labor violations including unpaid overtime wages, more than 200 monthly overtime hours, abuse of labor dispatch and student workers, occupational safety concerns, a lack of social insurance, and more"(July 10th). Furthermore, this proves that not only have they left their studies and families hunting for money to provide needs but also face further difficulties in the job itself. A child's body is also weaker than that compared to an adult hence making him more vulnerable to baring this specific job specifications and might as a result get seriously ill or even die young. "CLW has contacted a number of student workers directly by phone," the organization wrote Thursday. "Some made Samsung products at HEG while others made Lenovo products. One of those was a 19-year old female college student who told CLW Executive Director Li Qiang that while working on the Samsung production line at HEG, she worked four hours of overtime a day in addition to the normal eight hour workday, but she paid 8.5 RMB ($1.38) per hour for all work even though Chinese law requires overtime pay at 1.5 or 2 times normal wage" (Don Reisingers, 2014). Not to mention the serious psychological and mental issues that a child might acquire through the job period. Those issues will later on seriously affect that person's well-doing and life in general. Adding, the families of the working child, to the outside world, might seem happy and satisfied; a handful number of parents in devastated nations push their young children to work out of need. Not able to manage their families all alone wage, the parents feel that they have no real option except to push their youngsters into child labor (Matt Berg, 2014), but has anyone really cared to take a closer look? Mothers are so tempered and worried while the child is away doing the job. Also, no parents will ever be pleased to lose their son/daughter while mining for Samsung's supplies in return for money. The group of adults who are actually willing to work for Samsung and are physically and mentally able to bare the pressure also lose their jobs and became unemployed because Samsung is now simply paying less wages to children than to adults which therefore increases the unemployment rate in a country and as a result, affects the community as a whole. Furthermore, those unemployed workers can either leave the country and contribute to the effectiveness of some other country abroad or might even become criminals or thieves if there was no possible way for them to gain income. Not only that unemployment affects the community but also the bad reputation that Samsung has gotten to China is perceived in a bad way by other surrounding countries who might think negatively of the country as a whole. To proceed with, a corrupted community including corrupted or children with psychological issues can also contribute to degrading the country's standard of living or level. Samsung has truly reduced its costs by paying lower wages to children but in the longer run, has it really reduced its costs? All reasonable companies should consider the costs their reputation is going to get them and like all businesses, Samsung as a well-known brand has a wide reputation worldwide. "Accusations of child labor and poor work conditions can significantly hurt a company's reputation" (Robert C. Weich III, 2016) and should think twice before carrying out something that might bring negative comments. Further, the government of the country is also affected by the unethical decisions a business performs. Other countries around the globe might also take the wrong idea or think negatively of the government because they think that he, with his full knowledge, is accepting to what's being done to children which might affect the tourism or the level of goods being imported/exported from/to the country. The manufacturers also will be affected if for example in the long run, customers decided to boycott Samsung's products because of their unethical behavior towards children. However, competitors of Samsung might take advantage of this and raise their prices because consumers are now trying to boycott Samsung's products and hence again benefiting themselves by receiving higher profits from customers but negatively affecting customers who must now pay a higher amount to receive electronic devices. Another disadvantage to Samsung is that government, in order to stop this unethical behavior (child labor) can introduce a tax over Samsung to be paid whenever the company resorts to employ children beyond a certain age without paying attention to the work environment. Government can also place a minimum wage on company's Like Samsung; who tend to pay certain employees smaller wage rates. Lastly, a very indirect category of stakeholders involves other students who might think (for that specific time only) that leaving school for work sound like a good idea. They see their fellow mates making some money and providing basic needs to their families and so they think, I should do the same to my family but it unfortunately be quite too late until they recognize that the decision they made was so reckless and regretful.

http://borgenproject.org/10-child-labor-facts

http://www.chinalaborwatch.org/report/90

http://www.cnet.com/news/samsung-supplier-factory-found-to-have-child-labor-watchdog-says

http://www.latinpost.com/articles/109871/20160119/apple-and-samsung-are-among-major-companies-that-are-accused-of-using-minerals-mined-by-children.htm