WALMART

The Case

Walmart was caught using child labour in Bangladesh at the end of 2005, the Radio Canada programme Zone Libre made public the news that Walmart was using child labour at two factories in Bangladesh. Children aged 10-14 years old were found to be working in the factories for less than $50 a month making products of the Walmart brand for export to Canada 90 Referring to Walmart's policy at that time consisting of cutting ties with suppliers when violations occurred, the NGO Maquila Solidarity Network said that "cutting and running is the worst possible response to reports of child labour or other sweatshop abuses. Critiques said that it only discourages workers from telling the truth to factory auditors for fear of losing their jobs and encourages suppliers to hide abuses or to subcontract work to other factories that will escape inspection. Nevertheless, Walmart ceased business with the two factories immediately. Walmart alleges that despite its effort to inspect all factories, it is difficult to enforce its own corporate code of conduct with thousands of subcontractors around the world.

MY TWO CENTS

The International Labor Organization (ILO) helped in setting up an international framework for laws relating to and aimed at preventing child labor. According to ILO Convention concerning Minimum Age for Admission to Employment C138 in 1973, child labor refers to any work performed by children under the age of 12, non-light work done by children aged 12–14, and hazardous work done by children aged 15–17. Light work was defined, under this Convention, as any work that does not harm a child's health and development, and that does not interfere with his or her attendance at school. Walmart was caught violating this on 2005 in engaging child labor, worse underpayment of such. Walmart made the right move to terminate their contracts with the factories that has underage labor violations but too reactive on doing so. In the first place, laws against child labor were already set forth prior to the incident, they could have been proactive in having policies on human resource especially on lawful sourcing of it. They are also passive on their responsibilities; at first glance, it’s like they only care about a hug production outcome in a low cost expense, they should have compensated the hours lost by the exploited children either via educational assistance or humanitarian aids - Walmart should be held liable on their negligence of social responsibility since they are the main player on commissioning the factories on the production of their supplies for the sales, and underage laborers were involved.