The BBC documentary Blood, Sweat and T-shirts subjects six young fashion conscious British Consumers to the exposure of realities in the Indian Textile industry. Clothes have become disposable given the throwaway fashion trend taking the high street by storm and the bargain hunting becoming a national fascination. The documentary features six young fashion lovers who traded shopping for working in the Indian cloth factories and backstreet workshops to make clothes for the British stores. The main purpose of this documentary was to make the UK consumers aware of the reason why the UK retailers were able to source garments at such low-price and the Brits were asked to experience the condition of the labors to work for suppliers in low labor costs nations. The documentary revealed the day-to-day realities of the workers in the Indian garments factories where majority of the workers experience several ethical issues, which are discussed below:
The documentary reveals that the factories are situated in locations where the workers are forced to work in smelly and dirty environment in the soaring temperature. The Britons experienced backbreaking wok that they described to be painful owing to the hot and smelly conditions of the work environment. Given that most of the shops were smaller, the workers had to sleep beside their sewing machines. The labors had to work for long monotonous hours in a non-friendly environment (Malmusi et al., 2014).
The workers not only had to work in smelly and unhygienic working conditions but also were not paid adequate wages that they were entitled to be paid, given the amount of labor they put in stitching the clothes. This is evident from the documentary where it was revealed that the workers earn on average £1.50 to £1.75 per day, which is usually merely sufficient to feed their families and provide them with clothes.
The documentary revealed how the workers were made to work hard in a boring and non-friendly environment. The supervisors did not permit the employees to chat with each other in between their wok and neither were they permitted to rise from their machines. The workers even had to seek permission for going to the toilet from their supervisors.
The workers do not use advanced technology, which causes the workers to put in more pressure in sewing clothes, thus, reducing the productivity rate (Lambert, 2017). The sewing machines are old and dilapidated which hinders the smooth functioning of the work carried on by the workers as is evident from the inconveniences Georgina Briers faced while sewing the clothes in the factories.
The sweatshops had children working in such smelly and unhygienic working conditions for such law wage rate. Georgina conversed with a person who is said to have been working in the factory since he was 15 years. He worked hard only to support his family so that he could at least put food on the table.
The concept of corporate social responsibility has been considered to have a good payoff for both the stakeholders and the companies as well. There are various reasons for an organization to perform its corporate social responsibilities. The concept encompasses the arguments regarding the responsibilities of the companies towards their stakeholders beyond maximizing profits. There are two different views of Corporate Social Responsibility and the significance of both the views of the CSR is explained based on the ethical theory.
The broader view of Corporate Social Responsibility states that business organizations have responsibilities towards the communities in which they carry out their business activities. The business organizations are also responsible for addressing the adverse consequences that their business activities have on the society. According to André (2013) the broader view of corporate social responsibility incorporates duties of the corporations towards the employees, stakeholders, customers, environment, and customers as well. This signifies that the outcome of the actions of the business organizations have a significant impact on the society. In the words of Saini & Budhwar (2014), there is a connection between the business and society and since the society lays more emphasis on the quality of life, sustainability and environment, the organizations are expected to follow and comply with the societal norms. The broader view of corporate social responsibility states that every organization is a separate legal person who is entitled to own a property or right to enter into contracts. Along with these rights, the organization has certain obligations and duties towards the society as well. The broader approach of enables an organization to safeguard the environment, which would lead to the fulfillment of the moral obligations of the environmental group.
According to the narrow view of corporate social responsibility, the sole and primary objective of an organization is to maximize profits. According to Price (2014), business organizations have two essential responsibilities, firstly, to ensure that the business operations are carried out in conformity with the basic standard of business. Secondly, the business organizations operate with the objective to gain profits. Unlike the broader view of corporate social responsibility, Price (2014) states that a business organization is an artificial person, hence, the corporate executives and the proprietors are solely responsible to ensure that the organization is performing its obligations and enjoying its rights appropriately. This implies that the business organization should be focused in earning money and the executives of the organization are responsible for achieving the goals and objectives of the business organizations. In the words of Dubbink (2013), the corporations also have certain corporate social responsibilities towards the society, which includes the duty to expend money for the general interest in the way, the tax owners spends tax for societal causes.
The narrow approach of the corporate social responsibility is that the country’s government is solely responsible for governing the corporate activities ensuring that the activities are carried out ethically. Further, the organization cannot be considered as trustworthy in respect of welfare of the society because the companies lack adequate expertise and would emphasize more on the interest of the society than on the welfare of the community.
The retailers shown in the documentary does not seem to adopt the broader approach of corporate social responsibility. The retailers seemed to have set the objective of their organizations to earn profits. It is evident from the documentary that the retailers purchase clothes from the Indian factories at cheaper rates and sell them at comparatively higher and meeting the increasing demand for clothes and fashion in the Great British High Street. The retailers purchases clothes from the Indian factories with the objective of earning profits and not with the broader view of corporate social responsibility. As cheap fashion is in high demand in Britain, the retailers meet such demand, which ultimately results in high rate of profit. The documentary reveals how much effort the Indian workers put in to meet the demand of cheap fashion and receive minimal wage rate in return. The factory owners and employers disregard the welfare of the employees in that they fail to provide sufficient hygienic working conditions for the employees.
One of the arguments that can be used to justify that the narrow approach of corporate social responsibility adopted by the retailers is the ‘free market rule or invisible-hand argument’. According to Mezzadri (2014), when business organizations are conferred with the responsibility to perform their corporate social responsibilities, it is obvious that the organizations would apply its power and influence with the objective to conceal the society into a more materialistic and commercial place. The ‘invisible-hand’ argument, which is based on the contention, provided by Adam Smith states that in a free market, organizations have sufficient power to achieve their own self-interest and the ‘invisible hand’ acts as a guide enabling them to promote greater good.
In the words of Tai & Chuang (2014), a business organization has a social reasonability which is to involve in activities that enables the company to enhance its profits. However, the organizations must ensure that such profit making schemes must comply with the relevant laws. The business organizations must ensure that business activities are carried out in a freely competitive market without indulging in any deceptive and fraudulent activities. It can be inferred from the documentary that the retailer had adopted the narrow approach to maximize profits without having regards to the amount of labor put in by the labors while making the clothes available to them to meet the high demand for clothes. Tai & Chuang (2014) criticizes the invisible hand argument by stating that that it is n age-old concept which hardly exists in the contemporary corporate world. The fact that corporations should focus on maximizing profits and government should regulate the activities of the corporations is not true as several companies consider social welfare besides maximization of profits.
One of the most significant arguments of broader approach of corporate social responsibility is the ‘power includes responsibility’ argument that state that the business organizations in the contemporary era not only set their objective to earn profits but are also responsible for ensuring that the business activities achieves social good. According to Dubbink, (2013), the duties of any business organizations encompass the duty of the organizations towards the customers, employees, stakeholders, environment and the customers as well. The social contract between the business and the society makes the organization more responsible to ensure that the society in which the organization carries out its activities is not affected. In the documentary, the employers of the factories failed to consider the welfare of the labors. The wages paid to them just enabled them to put food on table for their families and not die. On the other hand, the retailers and the manufacturers earned high profits. However, this argument is subjected to criticism that if the business organizations laid more emphasis on CSR, it would become difficult for the companies to fulfill the material needs. The social responsibilities of business organization should include expenditure to achieve general interests of the stakeholders.
The narrow view of CSR is evident from the documentary where the companies and the factories employers are mainly focused on the profit making and production of clothes. When the six Britons visited the Indian factories and sweatshops, they became familiar with the stringent disciplinary rules and discovered that the employees worked hard under stressful work environment where they were not permitted to chat in between their work and had to seek permission for going to the bathroom.
The documentary revealed that the employers were completely inconsiderable of the working conditions, which is evident from the fact that the employees had to work under smelly conditions and had to sleep beside their sewing machines. The workers are provided lower wage rate, which makes it difficult to live a standard life. They earn £1.50 to £1.75 per day, which makes them put food before their family and clothe them. The wage rate merely prevents the employees from not dying. There are other issues in the factory including electric issues and the sewing machines used by the employees are in a dilapidated condition. The lack of advanced technology causes the employees to put in more hard work in such back-straining working condition. The working condition and the in unfair wages as well as disregard of the employees revealed in the documentary is evident of the fact that the organizations adopts the narrow view of the CSR thus, striving to achieve profit without performing their corporate social responsibilities (Twigg, 2012).
The broad view argument that responsibilities include power implies that the organizations have a responsibility towards the stakeholders, employees, retailers and the customers associated with such organizations. Richard, one of the Brits, stated that he was completely appalled with the conditions within which the workers loved in and he had to carry out the work. The Britons were of the opinion that the retailers were only concerned with the clothes made by the workers and not the conditions within which they worked on such clothes.
The popularity of the concept of ‘free market’ that is followed by programs such as NAFTA and GATT have been enacted to encourage free trade allowing huge corporations free reign to look for countries that provide low-wage rate. Georgina, another Brit, stated that while she was finding the sewing difficult with the sewing machines, he talked to a worker who has been into this work since he was 15 years of age. She stated that although these workers are paid low wage rate, they put in hard work just to put food on the table for the family. The documentary revealed the living standards of the workers, which should make the organizations, realize that although they are influential but they should also perform CSR responsibilities to ensure social welfare (De Neve, 2014).
Ethic of care is a concept that states that well-being of an individual is dependent upon the welfare of the community and in order to maintain such community well-being, one must enhance the well-being of oneself. The adopting of broad view of CSR is ethical because it involves the concept of community welfare. Given the governmental expenditure on unnecessary items, the expenses incurred or welfare costs are minimal. As is evident in the documentary that the employers does not permit the workers to chat in between or get up from their places without permission. The government being a regulator of the business activities may increase the wage rate to enable the employees lead a quality life part from just not dying. The organizations may cooperate with the government in ensuring that the workers are provided a less-strict working environment and are treated with respect and dignity to achieve equality (Pérez & Rodriguez del Bosque, 2014). Business ethics are moral principles that act as guidance to the operations of the business. An ethical conduct signifies the difference between wrong and right choice and it is expected from the business organization to adopt and follow good ethical practice in their business operations.
The documentary reveals the working condition that exists in Indian factories which also reflects the implementation of the CSR by the factories in India. The living standard of workers is low as the factories and companies emphasis on profit making disregarding the welfare of the employees. From the documentary, it is evident that CSR is significant in the contemporary era which includes the welfare of the workers and ensuring that they are not affected by the impact of the industry. The business professionals are responsible for improving the lives of the employees because it is the professionals who determine the policies of the organizations and if they revise the policies of the organization based on the concept of CSR. Being a business professional, it is appropriate to use policies that ensure health and welfare of the workers. It would be effective to determine a policy that enables the organizations to maximize their profits and achieve social good Barnard (2014). An organization is expected to make competitive return for the shareholders of the company and ensure fair treatment to its employees (André, 2013). This responsibility defined as the corporate social responsibility of the organization, requires companies to incorporate environmental and social concerns in their respective business activities. The company must ensure that it aims at reducing any harmful impact of its activities upon the environment and work in a way that does not affect the community.
References
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