Exploitation of Workers Causes and Solutions Essay Example

Exploitation of Workers: Causes and Solutions Paper Even children are involved in labor exploitation According to the statistics from International Labor Organization (ILL, 201 3), the number of child labors has already reached 215 million. This article aims to discuss two major causes Of the labor exploitation, the economic imbalance and the imperfectness of justice system, and offer two corresponding solutions to tackle it. Economic imbalance may be one Of the most important causes engendering the exploitation. To some extent, the wage gap has enhanced the exploitation of labors, both regionally and nationally. The most attractive aspect of working in the developed regions is that the wages are much more higher than those in rural areas. Therefore, the workers may earn more, but also be exploited. To take Foxing as an example, the workers have to do extra work for overtime fees to earn more. According to Angina and Chain (201 2), the basic monthly wage of the workers in Foxing factories was about 950 ARM (or 47) to 1200 ARM (or US$186), with 40 hours normal work, but the workers can get about 1600 ARM to 2000 Arm per month by working overtime, sometimes up to 120 hours per month. We will write a custom essay sample on Exploitation of Workers: Causes and Solutions specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Exploitation of Workers: Causes and Solutions specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Exploitation of Workers: Causes and Solutions specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer Although the basic salaries are already higher than those in the rural areas, they are still not enough for living in the cities and supporting their families out of poverty at the same time. Group 3, u5262100 The wage gap between home and host countries is similar to the situation between regions within one country. The global wage report (ILL, 2013) shows that in the Philippines, the hourly direct pay for time worked in manufacturing is only LIST . 41, contrast to Denmark, where the pay is US$34. 78. The big difference between the payments of countries stimulates the flow of workers. Wilkinson 2012) points out that there were 200,000 foreign-born workers Booing to the United Kingdom in 2004. These provokers can be easily satisfied by a little money, which is regarded a lot in their own countries. The guest workers in foreign countries are often considered without citizenship therefore there are some restrictions to them that the citizens are free from. Employers take the advantage of the different nationality by paying them below the wages that citizens of the host countries would expect for the same work. Although the consideration seems to be reasonable, Tats (2000) argues, Host countries are under an obligation to admit guest workers as citizens, so they have the rights to get the equal salaries. Because of the wage gap, huge amounts of migrant workers go to developed regions, which provokes the labor surplus, resulting in the wages driving down. Thus, workers have to do more work to meet their expectations. Power can also cause child labor. In poor families, it is very likely that children are forced to work and make money, otherwise they may suffer from starvation. Langford (1995) states that in developing countries, parents traditionally want gig timeliest because the more children they have, the more chance the children can survive into adulthood and look after their parents when they are old. But parents have to spend more on raising children thereby families must try to earn more, one way of which is to push their children to work. Consequently, as explained in the previous three paragraphs, economic imbalance makes labor exploitation possible. As a result, to deal with labor exploitation, the economic balance should be taken into consideration. Governments should enforce the development in rural areas to reduce the wage gap. Once rural areas are no longer in poor conditions, there would Group 3, 115262100 2 be less migrant workers going to the urban areas being exploited. At the same time, more working opportunities can be offered, so workers in rural Ares do not need to go to developed places searching for jobs, which can relieve the labor surplus, and eventually solve the problem. Improving social security and welfare is another way to keep people from poverty. In many developed countries, governments give subsides to poor families, while in developing countries, the social security is limited. Plotting (1979) emphasizes that social welfare expenditures are essential methods to offer all kinds of supports to the whole population. Thereby, with better social security and welfare and the development of rural regions, families in poverty do not need to do extra work with little payments, or force the young children to work tort money. Besides the economic imbalance, the imperfectness of justice system is also a significant factor leading to labor exploitation, In some countries, insufficiency of labor law permits the existence of exploitation. In Israel, for instance, the authorities refuse to confirm recent labor conventions, do not execute their own labor laws and ignore the criminality of the employers, and all of these actions give rise to the exploitation. By the law of Israel, the migrant workers should enjoy the same rights as the other workers, yet they are treated as slavers, forced to work, and they receive no minimum social benefits (Anonymous, 2004). Despite the fact that the legal system is better in developed countries, there are still problems. The migrant labors in the United Kingdom hue been facing the exploitation for their immigrant status since the introduction of Deregulation and Contracting-Out Act, Which abolished the licensing Of employment agencies and caused the regulatory vacuum (Wilkinson, 2012). Simultaneously, lacking punishment for disobeying the law can bring about exploitation. In China, the labor law stipulates that the mandatory overtime work is at most 36 hours per month, but actually workers in many factories only have 2 days off per month, which obviously breaches the labor law, and in some cases they are even not paid at all for the overtime (Chain, 2001). Shields (2010) also mentions that Group 3, u5262100 3 in Wall-Mart in China many workers had no labor contracts, which is an important factor regarded as the insurance of the activity, and the signing of labor contracts with every worker is stipulated by the law as well. Unfortunately, few companies were punished for breaking the labor law. Though the labor law does exist, exploitation still occurs due to the lack of penalties. Other than the situations of without proper laws, sometimes the employers can exploit workers by walking a fine line of the law. Chain (2001) finds that in China, the workers are paid no more than the stipulated minimum wage in many cases, which is quite unequal compared to the work they have done. To sum the three paragraphs above up, the weakness of legislation indirectly enables the exploitation of workers. Correspondingly, improving the justice system can contribute to eliminating labor exploitation. Pines and Meyer (2005) believe that it is important for the governments to pass and enforce laws and policies to establish fair wages and decent working conditions to prevent the exploitation of the workers. Instituting and executing more detailed labor laws and strengthening supervision can greatly make the current situation better. Practicing a one-off program of agglutination for migrant workers can fix the problem as well, which has succeeded in some countries (Wilkinson, 2012). Meanwhile, establishing effective labor law to prescribe the minimum age of employment and restrict the working conditions and working hours is also necessary to prevent child labor from exploitation (Langford, 19%). Hence, it is meaningful to refine the laws and regulations to solve the labor exploitation. In conclusion, economic imbalance and the imperfectness of the legal system are two considerable causes for labor exploitation. To cope with the problem, overspent should reduce the wage gap and balance the economy, which can be advanced by developing rural areas and offering social security and welfare.