Ethics Essay Primark
This essay shall look at the cost to human life and lifestyle through the demand of low cost clothing in the UK. This will be undertaken specifically looking at Primark and the Rana Plaza factory collapse in Bangladesh, observed as modern day slavery, having a “race to the bottom” characteristics, occurring as a consequence of globalisation. This essay will analyse differing ethical approaches including Virtue, Kantian and Utilitarian ethics. An overview of the findings will be given, using the Rana Plaza Factory in Bangladesh as a case study, along with an analysis of Primark’s supply chain.
Bangaldesh has for many years has been used for outsourcing, attractive to western clothing companies supply chains due to low costs. Bangladeshi’s economy is almost entirely reliant upon these export sales (80%) in the cloth trade (Jacob, 2012). Given this, it is clear that the Rana Plaza disaster (2013) killing more than 1000 workers did not have only a local effect, but a global one, with it raising many questions. It has been attested that those who died, did so as a consequence of poor operations management. The disaster further served to highlight that conditions of many factories were poor and often illegal. Large fashion brands including Primark, were seemingly happy to ignore such factors, to continue to gain profit, observed by the lack of procedures in place to ensure that standards of health and safety were met. This alongside the knowledge that child labour was often used, has led to many questions regarding irresponsibility of western companies.
Despite the cost of life in one of the major disasters (the Rana Plaza collapse) of the fashion industry, Primark has made huge profits (44 % higher than in 2012) highlighting that cost rather than ethics is at the forefront of the stakeholders. The race to the bottom characteristics1 of Bangladesh have facilitated giant western companies, cheaper labour and goods. Furthermore the lack of enforcement of the limited
Bangaldesh has for many years has been used for outsourcing, attractive to western clothing companies supply chains due to low costs. Bangladeshi’s economy is almost entirely reliant upon these export sales (80%) in the cloth trade (Jacob, 2012). Given this, it is clear that the Rana Plaza disaster (2013) killing more than 1000 workers did not have only a local effect, but a global one, with it raising many questions. It has been attested that those who died, did so as a consequence of poor operations management. The disaster further served to highlight that conditions of many factories were poor and often illegal. Large fashion brands including Primark, were seemingly happy to ignore such factors, to continue to gain profit, observed by the lack of procedures in place to ensure that standards of health and safety were met. This alongside the knowledge that child labour was often used, has led to many questions regarding irresponsibility of western companies.
Despite the cost of life in one of the major disasters (the Rana Plaza collapse) of the fashion industry, Primark has made huge profits (44 % higher than in 2012) highlighting that cost rather than ethics is at the forefront of the stakeholders. The race to the bottom characteristics1 of Bangladesh have facilitated giant western companies, cheaper labour and goods. Furthermore the lack of enforcement of the limited