Sab bhalo?

Before composing this blog post, I did a "gut check" as we so often do in class. Sweatshops, as described in the Aulakh article are immoral, said my gut. The question I'm going to address and attempt to answer with this blog is a diagnostic one: What makes sweatshops immoral?

Before I get to that, I'm going to need to be more specific with my language. When I say "sweatshop," what I am thinking of? What aspects of it are unpalatable but acceptable, and what aspects of it are immoral? The workplace described in the Aulakh article certainly fits my idea of a sweatshop, as do the conditions in the now infamous Foxconn plants before the rash of suicides and subsequent scrutiny and improvements. When I refer to sweatshops in this blog post, I'll be referring to places of work characterized by the following traits: working conditions and hours that are unhealthy and unsustainable, low pay, high turnover rates, and child labor.  Which of these traits do I find immoral, and which merely unpalatable? Of the traits I find immoral, why do I think so? 

Unhealthy and unsustainable hours/working conditions: I find these immoral, because employers force their employees to put up with these working conditions that violate their right to bodily integrity. The workers deal with it because they have no other choice. I have heard it argued both in the case of prostitution and in the case of sweatshops that this is permissible; the workers were in a bad situation before employers offered them a lesser evil. The employers are helping. I do not agree. The situation the workers were in was so awful that even  the lesser comparative wrongs of prostitution and labor in a sweatshop are seen as relief. The employers take advantage of the awful situation these workers are in to coerce them into a lesser evil. It does not matter that the coercion is done by the situation rather than the employer, it is coercion nonetheless. 

Low pay: in situations where the pay is so low as to not be livable, see the above paragraph. It would be immoral to take advantage of the workers need for money to force them to take a wage below that which is livable. In other cases, the wages are low by western perception, but are livable wages considering lower costs of living in the areas of the sweatshop. Low wages in such a case are a harsh, unpalatable, yet not immoral reality of labor. 

High turnover rates: high turnover rates are only immoral if they are evidence of coercion by management, who hold the threat of being fired over employees heads to force them to accept poor conditions and hours. They are not in and of themselves immoral.

Child Labor: Child labor is inherently immoral. Children can't provide informed consent, so child labor is only permissible in cases where it is very clear they are not being taken advantage of. Further, Children often suffer more adverse effects than adults in terms of long working hours and poor conditions. The health risks to children are greater, and they are more likely than adults to develop chronic conditions that will plague them all their life.