Beyond Sweatshops: Positive Deviancy and Global Labour Practices

Abstract

Disputes concerning global labour practices are at the core of contemporary debates regarding globalization. Attention frequently focuses on the real or alleged unjust exploitation of workers in developing economies by multinational corporations (MNCs) and their suppliers. Critics charge MNCs with the unjust exploitation of workers in developing nations and seek laws restricting the use of sweatshop labour (Gray 1998, Kaplan 2001, Featherstone 2002). Many economists and sociologists retort that the existence of sweatshops is an important and inevitable feature of economic development, and that laws that seek to restrict the production of goods in sweatshops will harm the very people they were intended to help (Maitland 1997, Krugman 1999, Kristof 2000, Henderson 2001, Norberg 2003). However, insufficient attention has been paid to firms that engage in truly good and beneficial activities with regard to their global workforces, where the result is not a ‘sweatshop’ environment but is instead a safe and healthy workplace where labourers are treated with respect. Workers have basic rights that should not be violated, notwithstanding the geographical locale of their workplace. In this essay, we argue that the labour practices of ‘positive MNC deviants’ can serve as models for other MNCs that wish to respect human rights while taking advantage of the economic benefits of a global workforce. Positive deviants are MNCs that deviate from specific norms in praiseworthy ways. While positive deviancy can occur in reference to both strategic and legal norms, in this essay we are primarily concerned with positive deviance from ethical norms. In particular, we call attention to those positive MNC deviants in the footwear and apparel sector that demonstrate enhanced respect for basic human rights and corresponding workers’ rights. These positive deviants have used creative approaches to global labour practices in order to move beyond sweatshops and to provide workers with wages and working conditions that respect their basic human dignity. The organization of this essay is as follows. First, we outline the conventional debate over sweatshops. Second, we provide a summary of the basic human and workers’ rights that ought to be respected by employers. Third, we present a pioneering account of positive deviancy and explain why our view is preferable to two alternative views that have recently been defended in the literature. Next, we use recent empirical field studies of MNC factories in developing nations conducted by one of the present authors, together with other recent research, as a basis for arguing that MNCs are capable of voluntarily respecting the basic rights of workers while remaining economically competitive. Finally, we provide a summary of the numerous strategic Respectively, Assistant Professor of Philosophy, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, USA and Associate Vice President and Professor of Business Ethics, DePaul University, Chicago, IL, USA.