Even though Nestle claimed that the company has a clear policy against child labor, the company was captured using such cheap production measures in 2015. Such actions contradict all the principles of corporate social responsibility because child labor oriented production is entirely unethical. There are many possible solutions to the problem, but they all cost money that the chocolate industry is unwilling to invest. The elimination of cheap labor will inevitably cause a significant increase in chocolate costs. This will provide more money to farmers, reducing the need for children and slave labor. One of the possible options to address the dilemma of child labor is to allow an increase the production costs. The company could have rationally described the reasons for such a change to the community and customers. Even though Nestle would have been put in the higher competition conditions, the unethical issue would have been eliminated (Clarke, 2015). Moreover, such a decision would have been rational from the perspective of corporate social responsibility, advancing the ethical approach to production.
The crisis conditions constrained Nestle’s options in addressing the children’s labor problem. Back in 2015, the only possible variant was to reduce the children’s labor to a minimum, trying to balance the production expenditures (Clarke, 2015). However, today Nestle is the leading company that can show the example of the successful elimination of illegal child labor out of supply and production chains. Such advancements can be achieved through the implementation of new technologies. Despite the significant expenditures, the automatization of supply and production can contribute to eliminating this problem. The company strives to develop an ethical approach to production. The automatization and usage of new technologies can alleviate the problem and help change the focus from cheap labor to automatized.
Reference
Clarke, J. (2015). Child labour on Nestlé farms: Chocolate giant’s problems continue. The Guardian. Web.