"Nestle signed an agreement in 2001 aimed at ending the use of child labour on cocoa farms"
BBC
News reported that Nestle was unable to keep to its promise of addressing child
labor . Likewise, the 2015 report of Fair Labor Association
expresses that child labor on Ivory Coast farms where Nestle sources its cocoa
is still evident . To make matters worse, the company made an
admission about the modern slavery and child labor in its supply chain in
Thailand where the company sources its seafood products. In
relation to all these, a group of consumers filed a class suit against Nestle
for failing to inform consumers that the chocolate products that the company
produces may contain cocoa from child labor.
The
most affected by child labor are apparently the child laborers. Nestle has
given farmers motivation to put children in child labor in order to get cocoa
at a very low cost . Since child labor happens in farms that are
part of Nestle’s supply chain, Nestle’s business practice is unethical, for it
embraces utilitarianism.
As the children are duped into working in the cocoa
farms without pay apart from being brutally treated, Kantianism would likewise find
the practice unethical. The same holds true for consumers who are deceived into
believing that child labor is not used in producing the chocolate products of
Nestle that they consume .
References:
Hawksley, H. (2012). Nestle 'failing' on child
labour abuse, says FLA report. BBC News. Retrieved from
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-18644870
Clarke, S. (2015). Child labour on Nestlé farms:
chocolate giant's problems continue. The Guardian. Retrieved from
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development-professionals-network/2015/sep/02/child-labour-on-nestle-farms-chocolate-giants-problems-continue
Kelly, A. (2016). Nestlé admits slavery in
Thailand while fighting child labour lawsuit in Ivory Coast. The Guardian.
Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2016/feb/01/nestle-slavery-thailand-fighting-child-labour-lawsuit-ivory-coast
Nieburg, O. (2018). Nestle sued
again for allegedly using child and slave labor to make chocolate.
Confectionery News.com. Retrieved from
https://www.confectionerynews.com/Article/2018/02/13/Nestle-sued-again-over-child-labor-in-cocoa-supply-chain
I am interested to see how the lawsuit pans out. I didn't realize that it is against the law to not disclose information such as the labor source which produced the food. Regardless it is important information that consumers want to know. It is good that at least a few people cared enough to file this suit. Hopefully they win and the company starts making some changes.
ReplyDeleteI also want to see the result of lawsuit. Also, people really want to know source of food that they eat. If they know it's made by child slaves, they would feel uncomfortable and may not buy it. So Nestle will lose some profit, and they may make some changes to fix this issue.
DeleteSince the news had already reported that Nestle was still using child labor to keep low cost of production, I hope people can pay more attention to this thing. With more attention and under more pressures from the society, I think Nestle might solve this problem quicker. I'm looking forward to see the result of this suit. Hopefully Nestle can make some changes of the company. People should pay more attention to industries with issue of child labor too.
ReplyDeleteI also think Nestle should solve this problem quicker by more pressures from society. I hope that Nestle can make more changes to make these children's lives better. I really want to see what Nestle will do for the next.
DeleteIt’s interesting that Nestle made this promise to address child labor, and then unsurprisingly did not go through with it. It shows that they don’t care very much about the issue, and aren’t really concerned about what people have to say about it. I would think that especially after having a lawsuit filed against them they would want to do something to address the situation, rather than keep ignoring it. It really says something about Nestle that they are part of the reason that this child labor exists, since they push cocoa farmers to produce it at a very low cost. I think Nestle really needs to think about what is more important to them, and whether they are willing to pay more in order to avoid child labor and keep the farming practices safe and ethical.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that Nestle don't care much about issue and what people say about it. The reason is that Nestle is a very big company, so it will not affected by these things. Their goal is to make more money. But I think they also should consider about children who work in cocoa industry. Yes, they should find famers that are ethical.
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