Answer 1: Nike is one of most famous American brands that operate across the world. The company is known for making sports wears and foot wears. Poor working issues are not new for business houses and Nike is not an exception. Nike also witnessed some labor issues after it started its operations in different countries of the world. Nike moved into Asian region in quest of avail cheap labor as well as to explore a new market. Company wanted to take benefit of cheap labor and big market, available in Asian countries like Indonesia, china, Vietnam, South Korea and Taiwan.
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Labor practices of Nike were criticized and it gained a wide criticism. Nike faced labor issues in china and Indonesia where labor conditions were not fulfilling even basic requirements. Company started ill treating and exploiting its employees. Pay scale of Nike’s employees was not as per standards of labor laws. Company’s policies on health of employees, their safety, leave, and working environment were in very meager condition. Company attracted righteous anger of various organizations for its exploiting overtime policies (Spar).
Workers were not allowed to form any union and their rights were oppressed by the company’s officials. Nobody was ready to take care of worker’s voice and they were exploited. Nike had no any policy to take care of employee’s or their family’s health. There was no any provision for the education of Employee’s children. Such exploitations by the Nike attracted resentment from human rights organization as well as several other organizations of the country which further forced governments to intervene (Nike.Inc).
Answer 2: I would have increased the wages of Nike employees along with making a friendly atmosphere for them. Their health and safety was inevitably important and I would have taken steps to improve the issues related to the same. A union was necessary for the employees and they had rights to form a labor union which also helps in making a friendly environment between management and workers. Education for their children was an additional requirement and I would have done arrangement for their schoolings on company’s expenses.
No extra overtime should be imposed on employees without their will. If any employee willfully works overtime, he should be paid accordingly. Taking care of employee’s health is the duty of company and as a CEO of the company, I would have arranged for their health and safety. Any employee cannot do anything in absence of a good working environment and giving a good working environment to Nike’s employee would have my top priority (Armstrong).
When any issue related to work environment, wages, health and safety is raised, company should take proper cognizance of the same and it should be solve amicably. When such issues were raised in the Nike, there was a need to address and solve these all issues instead of avoiding them. I would have attended the demands and all the issues as soon as I was informed about any of these issues. Workers of a company are valuable assets and taking care of them is the duty of company management. I would have accepted all the required and valid demands of employees without any delay. I would have constituted a committee in order to monitor all the issues of employees in order to prevent such issues from taking place in future.
Works Cited
Armstrong, Michael. A Handbook of Human Resource Management Practice. Philadelphia, PA: Kogan Page Publishers, 2007.
"Nike.Inc." 2012. nikeresponsibility. 9 December 2013 <http://www.nikeresponsibility.com/report/content/chapter/labor>.
Spar, Debora L. "Hitting the Wall: Nike and International Labor Practices." Harvard Business School (2002): 700-47.
