Ethics are when you know the difference between right and wrong. Ethics are the moral principles guiding behaviour. In relation to business behaviour, an ethical corporation would be expected to take into account issues of right and wrong when making decisions, and not do whatever is most profitable regardless of the consequences on others.  

Ethical issues are particularly acute in international business, as multinational corporations operate in many countries where the legal protections offered to workers, consumers and the environment are either very weak or almost non-existent. 

Child labour

It was reported by the Daily Telegraph that one of the most trustworthy and reliable companies using child labour; Foxconn, a major Apple supplier, has admitted to using underage interns in factories in China, employing children as young as 14. In many countries children are not allowed to work especially not in factories as it would be against the law in the UK and other countries. Taiwan-based Foxconn is the largest contract electronics maker in the world, constituting around 40 per cent of the global market and providing supplies for Samsung and Sony, as well as Apple. Apple acknowledges that child labour contributed to the making of iphone and other electronic gadgets in China factories. In February, Apple announced that it had found 91 children worked at its suppliers in 2010. This is an increase from the previous year. The company also acknowledged that 137 workers had been poisoned by the chemical, n-hexane, at a supplier’s manufacturing facility and that less than a third of the facilities it audited were complying with Apple’s code on working hours. In the year prior to December 2010, Apple had sales of over $65 billion.

Apple said the child workers are now no longer being used, or are no longer underage. "In each of the three facilities, we required a review of all employment records for the year as well as a complete analysis of the hiring process to clarify how underage people had been able to gain employment," Apple said, in an annual report on its suppliers.

http://stopchildlabor.org/?p=2528

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/apple/7330986/Apple-admits-using-child-labour.html#

According to the Daily Mail the food company Nestle has been accused of failing to carry out checks on child labour and other abuses in part of its cocoa supply chain. Cocoa is the raw product that makes chocolate in a global industry worth more than $90bn (£58bn) a year. Reports found that 1.8 million children in West Africa are at risk of abuse through dangerous child labour. The Fair Labour Association says it found "multiple serious violations" of the company's own supplier code. The code includes on child labour, safety and working hours. After increasing pressure, Nestle, which is the world's biggest food company, commissioned the FLA to map its cocoa supply chain in the Ivory Coast from where almost half the world's cocoa comes. Rampant injuries, mainly with machetes that slice into the children's legs as they harvest the cocoa pods, as well as children working long hours without pay. Nestle said they are ‘’taking direct responsibility for decreasing the risks."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-18644870

Primark

Primark have sweatshops in India and are paid 60p a day. Children as young as 11 years old are working in the sweatshops which are not good working conditions. Also Primark have factories in the UK. Factory workers making clothes destined for fashion chain Primark work up to 12 hours a day for £3.50 an hour, an undercover BBC investigation has found. Supplier TNS Knitwear was also found to be employing illegal workers in poor conditions at its Manchester factory. Primark says it is "extremely concerned" and is carrying out its own investigation. Primark is best known for its cheap fashion clothing and bucked the trend on Britain's high street last year to make a £233m profit.

For more information:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7824291.stm