The Hidden Faces of South Korean Giant

Samsung - Shame, and Corporate Atonement ;

Samsung is best known for its production of electronics, particularly mobile phones, which has been the primary power for its income. According to research done by Strategy Analytics, Samsung overtook Nokia to become the world’s largest maker of mobile phones in 2012, and reported its highest "quarterly profit since 2008 at $ 4.5 billion in net profit, up 81% from the year prior. In the year 2012, Samsung was investigated for using illegal labor practices in their China manufacturers. The allegations of this case were that the employees at this manufacturer were in some cases working 16-hour days with one day off per month, and they were also found hiring employees under the legal working age of 16 years of age.

Samsung’s manufacturer in China was trying to cut their costs and maximize their profit by hiring younger employees and overusing overtime. This would be deemed ethical by individualists, but they used illegal methods to maximize profit.

They weren’t honest to their employees when hiring them, the employees weren’t aware of what they were getting themselves into. Justice wasn’t demonstrated in this case either because they didn’t perform any fair practices. They used child labor and overused overtime so they didn’t use fair practices.

 Samsung’s manufacturer expected their employees to work 16-hour days with sometimes just one day off per month. This behavior continues since, in 2016, an investigation by Amnesty International has found that cobalt in smartphone batteries is mined by children as young as seven-years-old. These expectations are absurd and definitely not reasonable. Samsung didn’t stand for the right ideas and actions. Their actions were very poor and unethical, and certainly not courageous.

According to WIRED ;

Samsung released a statement that some of the batteries sourced from Amperex Technology Limited were missing insulation tape. This highlighted a case of Samsung neglecting to check the safety of their products to rush productions to meet their release date. Integrity implies “relational awareness” which Samsung does not display through their impatience with their deadlines. By not compensating for the injuries caused to customers, they showed a lack of respect and ethical responsibility to their consumer base.

The underage workers reportedly only receive a monthly take home pay of 750 yuan, which translates to about $120. The average minimum wage in China is 950 yuan, which means HEG is potentially breaking yet another labor law, one that’s admittedly not being forcefully enforced by the government. 

Other violations uncovered, as stated on China Labor Watch’s blog, include: * Discrimination based on sex, age, and individuality during the hiring process.

* Excessive working time. The workers toil 11 hours per day (including 3-5 hours of forced overtime), 6 days per week, 26-28 days per month. Their attendance system is also defective and unfair, negatively influencing the physical and mental health of the student and child workers.

* Legal problems exist in issues regarding the labor contract, remuneration system, and reward and punishment system of the company. There are extremely strict punishments, and the workers are frequently fined.

* Night shift workers are only given time to eat one meal during the 11-hour work shift. The normal meal break is 30-40 minutes long.

* The workers always work under dangerous conditions, and work injuries are common.

Lately, Samsung’s leader Lee Jae-Yong was arrested on bribery charges. Lee is accused of donating $36 million to nonprofit foundations operated by a friend of the former president in return for political favors. Lee has denied the charges.

Are They Now on the Right Track ??

I don’t think so….

As per the latest news,

“ Samsung Taiwan marketers allegedly created astroturf smear campaign against HTC ”

The company is under investigation by Taiwan's FTC and may be fined.

How Can Samsung Become Ethical in Practice ?

Samsung needs to implement new processes to become ethical in practice. An honest dialogue between the company and its consumers would help resolve current worries about future products.

 Parties independent from Samsung’s business procedures should be hired to monitor the safety of products, to regularly assure underage workers are not hired, and assure workers are not being exploited. Perhaps a new product safety department should be implemented to communicate with product testers for safety risks.

 Suppliers should sign contracts to agree they will implement stricter safety checks on their materials. This will allow customers to get the facts, for the company to abide by ethical guidelines provided by the virtue theory, abide by the law, and maintain its integrity.