Most companies experience high production costs and decide to relocate to a region where production costs are relatively cheaper. With relocation of a company to another place, it is inevitable that there will be the dismissal of some employees in order to reduce the cost of production. It is ethical for a company to move to another region in order to reduce the costs of production, especially when the company is experiencing financial difficulties. It is, therefore, ethical if AmeriTrade Toys moves its production to China. The main aim of doing this is to reduce the costs of producing the toys to a minimum level as possible. No company wants to dismiss its employees because they are an important asset. The act of dismissing employees is usually analogous to an act of closing a facility that has had a huge capital venture. It is, therefore, ethical when they move to the other region and all the parties involved become winners. The employees are innocent parties to the market forces, therefore, the company can only be ethical when it provides the employees and their families maximum support at the same time avoid any delays.
Employees who remain in the company are affected in the process of relocation. There is a challenge of the remaining employees being able to maintain their talent. It is also important to take keen note of how the remaining employees treat the departing employees. How departed employees are treated, sends a powerful message to the remaining employees giving them an idea on how the company treats them. Therefore, the company should treat them well because they are real people and not commodities.
The community living around a company is greatly affected when a company relocates to another place. When most companies depart, they usually leave an economic hole. It is essential for the company to partner with the local community in the process of laying off employees. The company makes sense through this during relocation. Word will travel fast to the community about the company’s conduct and the same market conditions can face the company on the place it relocates to and it may be forced to come back to its original location, therefore, the community may have concerns on whether to ignore the company or not.
Ethical Consideration for Ameritrade Toys to Continue Using Wen Wai as a Manufacturer
It is inappropriate for AmeriTrade Company to continue working with Wen Wai as a manufacturer basing on the description of the working conditions. The various ways and means of delivering results is relatively important as the results that need to be delivered. It is important for Wen Wai to note that the passion its employees have in their work is usually extended to the employees’ private lives.
Therefore, it is important for the company to have a healthy balance between the work commitments made by the employees and their own life responsibilities. The company should have provided time for employees to rest, spend time with their family members and at the same time have healthy food that will enable them to work effectively. For Wen Wai to be able to succeed, it is integral to have flexible work arrangements and provide resources that are able to support its employees including healthcare among others.
Steps taken by AmeriTrade to ensure the firm is not profiled as an enterprise that benefit from sweatshop labor
AmeriTrade Company has to put in place several measures to prevent the sweatshop labor. The company should ensure the labor department enforces and monitors ethical practices in the organization because most organizations have become capitalist and priority has been put on gaining money and not the welfare of the employees. The employees should be able to have a social contract approach which will have an obligation to respect rights that are articulated in the contract.
It is also vital for America Trade to adopt Universal Human Rights that its article 30 identifies the positive and negative rights of an employee. The article explains what will happen if human beings possess negative rights at the work place. The practice of making the workers spend more hours at the workplace and given little amount of pay for the overtime is a negative right of an employee. If employees possess positive rights, they will have an entitlement to practices that are necessary for an employee to have individual freedom to participate in various activities such as having employee unions, entitlement to annual leave, among others.
America Trade, while trying to address the conditions favoring sweatshop conditions, should take into considerations the pressures that come to globalization and the poor economic condition that are present in developing countries. For instance, even though there is the presence of global disparity in wages and the living conditions, the company should sort working conditions that are unacceptable.
America Trade should sponsor no sweat program that will be able to eliminate sweatshop labor. This program will be able to organize the community to support a community that is practicing a sweatshop-free shopping law, encourage companies to treat its employees well and produce goods that are of fair trade.