Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Research
Today’s globalized technological world provides humanity with a better life quality than ever before. However, a lot of people still do not have access to those advances. Private businesses are central when it comes to
shaping the economic, political and sociocultural reality of such world. Acknowledging the benefits of such a world system it should be mentioned that the practice may result in such problems as a slave and bonded labour
in developing countries. Slave and bonded labour is a situation when a person pays off its debt by his personal services, in particular, work (ILO 13). In addition to being illegal, there is no way to accurately estimate
how much work is needed to pay off the debt. This empowers the employer to extend the amount of work or days needed to repay the debt or other obligation. Slave and bonded labour is the most common form of modern day slavery (ILO). This paper recognising such social and environmental impact of contemporary business organisations will explore ways to minimize their negative impact. To that end, the paper will present arguments, ideas, and practice by thinkers, activists, NGOs, activists, and companies from the perspective of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).
Necessary Evil
A laissez-faire view suggests that there have to be some “necessary evil” for a greater good. In the case of this paper, the “necessary evil” is considered to be a slave and bonded labour. Under this view, this negative practice exists for the sake of integration of developing nations into global supply chains and trade. The integration will result in better education, more transparent and professional governance, economic development and other social paybacks that theoretically will eventually end the practice of slave and bonded labour. However, this paper will review the question whether or not this “necessary evil” component is actually that necessary.
Industries and Countries
There are 21 million adults and children who suffer in forced labour in the world (Bureau of International Labor Affairs 1). Slave and bonded labour are endemic in such industries as garment, heavy industry, mining,
quarrying, agriculture, construction, textile, steel, and technology industry (Bureau of International Labor Affairs 30). One should understand that the “labels” usually do not own production facilities. That means that
the standards and principles of the “labels” are not necessarily in force for small sub-contractors, where workers are not only underpaid and subject to various forms of harassment, they may also be victims of slave and
bonded labour. Typically, slave and bonded labour occurs at the extraction and manufacture stage of the flow of resources. The practice is common in all the industries where human labour power remains dominant; industries
where the phrase “knowledge-based” production is not applicable. In terms of countries and good, slave and …
