The exploitation of human beings for personal or corporate gain has been a constant and bloody stain throughout humanity’s history. In the past, exploitation focused on slavery - the forced labour of captured beings with little to no regard for their needs. This practice died out largely in the 1800s, though not entirely, and the focus has switched to sweatshop factories. The practice of sweatshop labour - difficult and/or dangerous labour by a group of workers where more than one labour law is being broken - grew after the industrial revolution when workplaces moved away from the cottage industry to assembly lines and mass production. Sweatshop labour remains to this day a driving force of poverty, especially in developing or ‘Third World’
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Factories with sweatshop conditions are abundant in developing countries because labour there is cheaper by far and multinational companies can hide the conditions and human rights violations easier, away from the prying eyes of the United Nations (based in New York City) and the US Department of Labor. Some of the worst sweatshop conditions occur in Bangladesh, Cambodia, Turkey, Indonesia, and Mexico. Bangladesh and Turkey are infamous for having tremendously unsafe workplaces. Mexico has their own specific type of sweatshop factory called Maquiladoras that are placed near the US/Mexico border by US brands and controlled by US CEOs. These factories employ a large part of the Mexican population but do not pay livable wages and do not treat workers with respect. Factories have been placed in these countries by massive companies seeking cheap outsourcing, usually in the fields of textiles, footwear, and agriculture. Such companies or brands include Nike, H&M, Wal-Mart, Forever 21, and Victoria’s Secret. Wal-Mart is often criticized for their Bangladesh factories, as these buildings have previously collapsed and killed workers. Regardless, “in the hierarchy of jobs in poor countries, sweltering at a sewing machine isn’t the bottom” (Kristof, N. 2009). Working in a sweatshop factory is at least more comfortable and less dangerous than working in mines or scouring smoldering …show more content…
One of the first recorded labour laws was the British 1833 Factory Act protecting underage youth and strictly banning factory employees under nine years of age. This law was not the first attempt at protecting the working-class, but certainly the first effective one as it gave third party inspectors the power to enforce the law, a quality prior acts had lacked. Some other principles this act sought to uphold were: (1) employers must have a certificate proving a child worker’s age, (2) children from the ages nine through to 13 could not work any longer than nine hours per day, (3) youth from the ages 13 through to 18 could not work any longer than 12 hours per day, (4) workers under the age of 18 that qualify as child workers must attend two hours compulsory schooling during the day, and (5) workers under the age of 18 that qualify as child workers are forbidden to work during the nights. This was only one in a series of acts for the betterment of working conditions. The Factory Act of 1844, though not as huge an act, was also important because it lowered the working hours of women to 12 per day and forbade night shifts. Alongside this it established the minimum working age to be eight years and limited working hours for children employed under the age of 13 to six and one half-hour days. The ‘Ten Hour Act’ came in 1847 to shorten work days to no more than ten hours for women and youth.
Factories with sweatshop conditions are abundant in developing countries because labour there is cheaper by far and multinational companies can hide the conditions and human rights violations easier, away from the prying eyes of the United Nations (based in New York City) and the US Department of Labor. Some of the worst sweatshop conditions occur in Bangladesh, Cambodia, Turkey, Indonesia, and Mexico. Bangladesh and Turkey are infamous for having tremendously unsafe workplaces. Mexico has their own specific type of sweatshop factory called Maquiladoras that are placed near the US/Mexico border by US brands and controlled by US CEOs. These factories employ a large part of the Mexican population but do not pay livable wages and do not treat workers with respect. Factories have been placed in these countries by massive companies seeking cheap outsourcing, usually in the fields of textiles, footwear, and agriculture. Such companies or brands include Nike, H&M, Wal-Mart, Forever 21, and Victoria’s Secret. Wal-Mart is often criticized for their Bangladesh factories, as these buildings have previously collapsed and killed workers. Regardless, “in the hierarchy of jobs in poor countries, sweltering at a sewing machine isn’t the bottom” (Kristof, N. 2009). Working in a sweatshop factory is at least more comfortable and less dangerous than working in mines or scouring smoldering …show more content…
One of the first recorded labour laws was the British 1833 Factory Act protecting underage youth and strictly banning factory employees under nine years of age. This law was not the first attempt at protecting the working-class, but certainly the first effective one as it gave third party inspectors the power to enforce the law, a quality prior acts had lacked. Some other principles this act sought to uphold were: (1) employers must have a certificate proving a child worker’s age, (2) children from the ages nine through to 13 could not work any longer than nine hours per day, (3) youth from the ages 13 through to 18 could not work any longer than 12 hours per day, (4) workers under the age of 18 that qualify as child workers must attend two hours compulsory schooling during the day, and (5) workers under the age of 18 that qualify as child workers are forbidden to work during the nights. This was only one in a series of acts for the betterment of working conditions. The Factory Act of 1844, though not as huge an act, was also important because it lowered the working hours of women to 12 per day and forbade night shifts. Alongside this it established the minimum working age to be eight years and limited working hours for children employed under the age of 13 to six and one half-hour days. The ‘Ten Hour Act’ came in 1847 to shorten work days to no more than ten hours for women and youth.