Quote:
Originally Posted by iron81
That sounds like a problem the Phillipine government should handle. I don't see why they can't strike a balance between worker safety and development.
Local governments in developing countries are corrupt and understaffed (who knew), so the regulations are poorly enforced. In this case it seems that the worst failings were the building owner, not the call centre company.
However, im making two related points.
1. Any company coming to a poor country (or anywhere) has an obligation to look after their workers. Anything else is exploitation and ****ty. Responable call centres like the ones im involved with make this central to all of our procurement and contracts. Then follow up with regular audits.
2. Safety regs are a good example of why econ 101 thinking falls down. a call centre worker is not well placed to assess the fire risk of every potential employer. Nor are they in the position to make sure regulations are followed.
Developing world labour practices are complicated. As is defining where the responsibility lies along a long supply chain. What is exploitation, what is doing good, what is doing harm?
The free market stuff delibertely obscures this, because they want to exploit people and dont give a ****. The american company that just burnt 30 people to death just wanted the cheapest location and didnt want to spend time and effort on safety.