The Problem: The Case of the Overseas Suppliers

As you begin moving forward on your products, you are always on the lookout for high quality, organic, inexpensive herbs to include in your product. You have found a supplier in the mountains of Northern India who can give you a good price on excellent herbs. The contract would provide that this partner would be an exclusive supplier of a wide variety of herbs which are grown in India. The supplier would contract with local farmers for the herbs, work with them to guarantee quality, and would assure the herbs were processed in accordance with your quality control standards.

The only difficulty is that you have found out that child labor is used in the cultivation, harvesting, and processing of these herbs. When you raise the question, your supplier indicates that because the farmers are very poor, having the entire family work the fields is essential for them to reach even a threshold level of sustenance. As far as the children in the processing plants, the children are never under the age of 10. The jobs are prized because working in these kinds of plants gives whole families increased wealth.

The price you will pay for these herbs under this agreement is very competitive. By accepting this contract you will be able to keep your price very low and maintain your competitive advantage.

This question explores whether American companies have any obligation to work for international labor justice. While low wages for adults are problematic, even more problematic are low wages and possible indentured servitude for children.

Please complete each section of this worksheet. Some people find that writing the answers out on another page and then "cutting and pasting" them into the worksheet lets you think through the problem better.

If you only have time to do part of this worksheet, click the "save work" button at the bottom of this page. At any later time, you can then return to this worksheet and continue.

Be Reasonable

Preserving Rights and Responsibilities

Compare and contrast at least two options, preferably three. Choose one option which you intuitively believe is the right answer and then choose another with which you disagree or which is a close second. As you work through the four lenses, you will find words to support your first choice or discover that another option is in fact preferable.

After brainstorming with the leadership team, you have identified four options:

Accept the contract as provided with no restrictions about child labor.

Accept the contract as provided and specify that the children can work no more than 4 hours per day.

Do not accept the contract unless the supplier can guarantee that no child labor will be used in the production of the herbs.

Accept the contract as provided and provide for full day salary for children if their labor is used. However, specify that the children can work no more than 4 hours per day. Provide education for the children for 4 hours per day.

In three to four coherent paragraphs, compare and contrast your options using the Responsibility Lens. In the process, consider the following questions:

Motive: What are the reasons that the ethical agent would choose these options?

Universalizability: Can everyone use these reasons for acting in choosing what to do?

Reversibility: Am I willing to have someone else use either of these reasons how they treat me (reversibility)?

Prior Agreements: Am I treating people the way they have freely consented to be treated? Am I treating them as means to my ends or with dignity, as ends in themselves?

General Expectations: How does this option meet the general expectations of duties in our community?