For those who follow the AwayTeam blog, you will know that we pride ourselves in doing hustle with heart. Good and fair ethics in business is central to the way AwayTeam works and how I try to live as a person in general.
To live this way is not always easy and has never been black and white. I’d like to take you into the gray for a second.
This week in the news, there has been a lot of fuss about the ethics of buying cheap clothes from Kmart, Big W and Cotton On that have been made by Bangladeshi women in appalling conditions. There are calls for boycotting of the products, just as there were around big chocolate companies sourcing their cocoa beans from places where children are the main workers.
But here are the cold hard facts. If we stop buying products from these companies, the factories in Bangladesh will eventually close down. And those women’s families will have no income, which may lead to people dying of starvation or finding other even less desirable ways to support their families like prostitution.
Boycotting seems to be a way to relieve us of our guilt, while still living out our privilege. We can simply say. “Oh, I don't buy clothes from there or eat that type of chocolate. This not my problem.”
The thing is, it is our problem. We are all human beings sharing the same planet and therefore by default we must act.
Edmund Burke said, “All that is necessary for evil to succeed is for good men to do nothing.” If you do nothing but look away, that is boycott, you are doing exactly that.
So what can we do other than boycotting?
When Kmart sells $3 shirts but claims their supply chain is ethical, challenge that notion. Email them and ask them how that is possible. And don’t believe their spin. Keep challenging them until the spins stops and change happens.
In the articles about unethical clothing, Oxfam calls for the public to demand ethical wages. According to studies, an increase of 13% on the price of low cost items would allow this to happen. In other words a $3 t-shirt would become just $3.39 for the workers to get a pay raise.
Don’t take generalized statements as facts or the truth. Listen to people who know and understand the culture from which the service or products originated.
Using Away Team as an example. I consider myself an expert on what is ethical and what is not in hiring staff in the Philippines. So if you want to understand how the wages work there, ask me and I’ll be happy tell you. I have research and facts to back it up and a whole team of people there on the ground to consult with.
When it comes to paying online workers, there are many people who are misinformed. I have heard it said over and over that $2 goes a long way in a country like the Philippines, as a way to justify why this hourly rate might be ‘ethical’ for some people.
But if you ask me, I can tell you exactly how far $2 goes. This amount can buy you only about 2 kg. of mangoes or bananas.
A family of 5 needs approximately $3,066 a month to live comfortably. The minimum legal wage is not even close to that and neither is the $2/hour rate.
I had a moment this week when someone told me proudly that they were paying their VA $80 a week. Additionally, her VA doesn’t have a legal contract so she has no holidays or sick pay. She won’t have access to healthcare and other benefits afforded to those who are legally employed. And her pay is not even the minimum wage in the country, just enough to scrape by.
In a split-second I had to decide what to do: speak up and possibly lose a connection or keep quiet and be a bad human. I was terrified as she is closely affiliated with an influencer and helps others find and train VAs.
But my ethical self won and I’m so glad I did. This individual was horrified and is going to change her ways. She even wrote about it on her Facebook account! That’s one life changed.
But even if the opposite had happened and she got mad and walked away, I would still be okay since I did the right thing.
I am determined to be the voice in the dark that speaks for those who have no voice - who asks the difficult questions, who admits when what they have been doing has not been okay and changes her ways and amends past mistakes.
I will continue to live in the gray. The question is will you?
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