The idea of bending the existing regulations and laws for the sake of meeting not only the needs of the company but also those of potential staff members is quite alluring. From the standpoint of Utilitarianism, the suggested solution, being rooted in the idea of maximizing utility, the described solution works flawlessly in the business context. However, by hiring underage workers from China, Sam makes a very obvious ethical misstep by choosing to exploit children. Even though the age of thirteen is deemed as a possible age bar for workers in some parts of China, it is still unacceptable to hire those that are defined as children under U.S. law (Waltz, 2017). Thus, Sam‘s actions cannot possibly be considered ethical in the described scenario.
Therefore, in this situation, Sam must abandon the practice of hiring illegal, underage immigrants from China and, instead, consider contacting social services to provide assistance to the said children. In addition, Sam must accept responsibility for the illegal practice that he has been doing In addition, Sam will have to prepare for a smooth transition to more ethical practice, such as the use of legal migrants’ work (Faraz, 2019). The described change will also imply using a strategy that is rather low in expenses. However, it will provide an opportunity for the company to use the services of migrants of appropriate age, thus complying with the current ethical and legal code of the U.S. trade relationships (Viola & Verheul, 2020). The suggested solution will also help the organization to avoid poor publicity, which will inevitably ensue once the issues concerning the use of child labor surface.
References
Faraz, M. A. (2019). Economics of child labor: A multidimensional approach. Journal of Social Science Research, 14, 2979-2996. Web.
Viola, L., & Verheul, J. (2020). Mining ethnicity: Discourse-driven topic modeling of immigrant discourses in the USA, 1898–1920. Digital Scholarship in the Humanities, 35(4), 921-943.
Walts, K. K. (2017). Child labor trafficking in the United States: A hidden crime. Social Inclusion, 5(2), 59-68.