The Next Step in Fair Labor

Apple, Hewlett-Packard, two giant companies working in the electronic computer industry, are taking steps to reduce the number of student workers in their Chinese manufacturing suppliers. Why?

The idea of students working in a manufacturing company to make up some money has never been a bad thing. A period of time spent in a company – i.e., internships, apprenticeship, stages, and the like – is usually good experience for the students as it exposes them to real work, they have a chance to put into practice what they have learned, and could provide a smooth entry to the job market. How could this experience harm students? Why large US companies want Chinese suppliers to reduce student labor?

I know what you may be thinking but we are not concerned with elementary school students. Hence, this is not yet another child labor issue. According to an article that appeared February 7, 2013 in the New York Times, some Chinese factories use temporary, high school student, and vocational school student workers to face high spikes of production. In these cases, students are asked to work long hours on something that is sometimes unrelated to their studies. School principals receive a bonus for sending their students to the factories. Moreover, there have been some issues of forced labor. This is a clear violation of elementary principles of responsible labor set by the International Labor Organization's (ILO) Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, Principle 2.

There are two issues that deal more directly with corporate social responsibility. First, these temp and student workers perform their jobs for free. The assumption is that the work program in the factory helps them learn how to perform a job. What if they don't need that type of job? What if it is unrelated with their studies? What if the job is repetitive and takes just a few hours to be learned? In short, are we talking about a "fair" contract between the company and its unpaid workers? What is the rationale behind the process?

Second, for a company – such as HP or Apple – that proclaims its social responsibility and strongly advocates for it, forced labor is one of the most regrettable events that can happen. Of course, if this manifests in the company on in one of its supplier really makes little difference (do you agree with this?). Forced labor is close to slavery and this is why it is particularly and vehemently opposed by the ILO and companies that make public statements on their social responsible policies.

Now, how could the problem be sold? HP and Apple declared that they are going to inspect the factories of their suppliers to monitor employment of temporary and student workers. Is this enough? Is this a 'rational' step? How can these company make better use of their resources and help their suppliers cope with the problem? While the second definitely is a relevant issue in social responsibility of corporations, is the first topic touched above of real concern? Why is it so?

A multi-billion dollar company has resources to cope with any issue. Why not help schools set up internship programs that actually match student curricula?

A positive note is that it seems that labor issues in international social responsibility are finally moving forward and beyond the usual (unfortunately still unsolved) problem with child labor. This is a fine step in the evolution of the social responsibility of employment relations.