The Sweatshop Industry and Child Labour in NIC’s This report is aimed at investigating if the two major TNC’s Nike and Gap manufacture their products according to their code of vendor conduct.
Both companies code of vendor conduct clearly states that no workers are employed under the legal minimum age and sweatshops don’t exist in their factories. A sweatshop is a factory where employees are subject to extreme exploitation; they work in dreadful conditions with health and safety hazards, for little pay and long hours. Child labour is, as the word suggests, when children under the legal minimum age are employed to work When we hear brand names such as Nike and Gap, most of us will immediately associate the brands with expensive and fashionable designer products, and no doubt most people have worn an item with these particular brand names on them; however under the soft clothing and recognisable brands lies a very different story. To investigate this further we have to travel to a country where Nike and Gap manufacture their products. I have decided to travel to Cambodia. This is a country situated in South East Asia, bordered by Vietnam, Thailand and Laos.
Its capital Phnom Pehn is situated in the south east of the country. Most of Cambodia’s work force is mainly in the primary sector; however their secondary sector is growing, which results in Cambodia being recognised as being an NIC (newly industrialised country). IMAGE When we arrived in Cambodia we immediately started our search for a factory that manufactured products for Nike and Gap. This was very difficult, as the factories are in secret locations, becaus. . ap and Nike are made in factories in South Asia and the demand here affects lives there.
Consumers are starting to realise this. More and more want that workers making their clothes are being treated humanely. Both the Gap and Nike have anti-sweatshop rules or codes of vendor conduct, they proudly post those reassurances on their web sites and staff repeats to worried customers “No sweatshops, no child labour, no tolerance”. But as we have seen in this report Nike and Gap break their codes of vendor conduct on several points.
These codes of vendor conduct and anti-sweatshop rules are just an attempt not to damage their reputation. After all Nike and Gap rely on their reputation from the public and a report like this could damage their reputation. I hope that this report has helped to raise awareness about these issues.
