Sweat shops Asia What is a sweat shop ? Where did the name come from? Why sweat?

Why shop?
Sweatshop (or sweat factory) is a negatively connoted term for any working environment considered to be unacceptably difficult or dangerous especially by those from developed countries with high standards of living. However, sweatshops may exist in any country. Sweatshop workers often work long hours for very low pay, regardless of laws mandating overtime pay or a minimum wage. Child labour laws may be violated. Sweatshops may have hazardous materials and situations. Employees may be subject to employer abuse without an easy way to protect themselves The terms sweater for the middleman and sweating system for the process of subcontracting piecework were used in early critiques like Charles Kingsley's Cheap Clothes and Nasty, written in 1850, which described conditions in London, England. The workplaces created for the sweating system were called sweatshops, and variously comprised workplaces of only a few workers, or as many as 100 or more. In the sweatshop of 1850, the role of the sweater as middleman and subcontractor (or sub subcontractor) was considered key, because he served to keep workers isolated in small workshops. This isolation made workers unsure of thei r supply of work, and unable to organize against their true employer through collective bargaining . Oriental cultures accept authority more easily than Western Cumtures Is this a true statement?

What is sweat shop Paris? Is the name appropriate? Sweat Shop is a "cafe couture", a new creative concept situated near hotspot canal St Martin in Paris. Imagine 10 work stations equipped with 10 SINGER sewing machines and one central communal table. Join one of the 5 courses that are being offered every week an d perfect your knitting and sewing skills or meet one of our guest designers in town for an encounter. Not unlike a cyber cafe, you come whenever you please, rent a state of the art sewing machine by the hour and start sewing. It seems that this current name is not really a problem in France because of the unknowing of the real concept of sweatshop. It seems that peoples of these companies was doing reference to the activity of sweat and didnt think about the potential misunderstanding. For the moment it is not a problem but if they want to develop the concept or doing communication or advertising in a foreign country, it will be more difficult and maybe cost them more to explain what the concept is. Personal research: Do Asian style sweat shops still exis t? Where? Who defends their existence?

It seems that even if people take care of this kind of factories and try to increase quality of working and living in these place, sweat shop still exist. We can see for example this map with some of the most impotant sweat shop of the last 5 years.

We can also look at these articles:

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/15/world/asia/15iht-inspect.2827852.html?_r=1 http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China_Business/ID05Cb01.html http://www.citizeneconomists.com/blogs/2008/08/14/outsourcing-the-good-side-of-asiansweatshops/ And one of the best argument in favor of sweat shop is that normally these companies are more prone to pay people with a higher average wage than before and it s help poor countries to create a new economy and help them to develop and create new value in the country. It seems also than the business activity of sweat shop has changed, know a lot of Asian sweat shop are doing Hi tech products: http://www.asianwindow.com/business/americas-high-tech-sweatshops/ http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/09_41/b41500347 32629.htm Minimum age convention :
The Convention concerning Minimum Age for Admission to Employment, is an Convention adopted in 1973 by the International Labour Organization. It requires ratifying states to pursue a national policy designed to ensure the effective abolition of child labou r and to raise

progressively the minimum age for admission to employment or work. The convention (number C138 of ILO) is replaced several similar ILO conventions in specific fields of labour. Countries are free to specify a minimum age for labour, with a m inimum of 15 years. A declaration of 14 years is also possible when for a specified period of time. Laws may also permit light work for children aged 13 -15 (not harming their health or school work). The minimum age of 18 years is specified for work which " is likely to jeopardise the health, safety or morals of young persons". Definitions of the type of work and derogations are only possible after tripartite consultations (if such a system exists in the ratifying country). Worst form of child labour conventi on The Convention concerning the Prohibition and Immediate Action for the Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labour, known in short as the Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention, was adopted by the International Labour Organization (ILO) in 1999 as ILO Convention No 182. By ratifying this Convention No. 182, a country commits itself to taking immediate action to prohibit and eliminate the worst forms of child labour. The Convention is enjoying the fastest pace of ratifications in the ILO's hist ory since 1919. The ILO's International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC) is responsible for assisting countries in this regard as well as monitoring compliance. One of the methods used by IPEC to assist countries in this regard are Time -bound Programmes. The ILO also adopted the Worst Forms of Child Labour Recommendation No 190 in 1999. This recommendation contains, among others, recommendations on the types of hazards that should be considered for inclusion within a country -based definition of Worst Form Hazards faced by Children at Work. Convention 182 includes forms of child labour, which are predefined worst forms of child labour. They are also sometimes referred to as automatic worst forms of child labour. The predefined worst forms of chil d labour are: All forms of slavery or practices similar to slavery, such as
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the sale of a child; trafficking of children, meaning the recruitment of children to do work far away from home and from the care of their families, in circumstances within which t hey are exploited; debt bondage or any other form of bonded labour or serfdom; forced or compulsory labour, including forced or compulsory recruitment of children for use in armed conflict; Commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC), including the u se, procuring or offering of a child for: prostitution, or the production of pornography or for pornographic performances;

use, procuring or offering of a child by others for illegal activities, also known as children used by adults in the commission of cr ime (CUBAC), including the trafficking or production of drugs.

Convention on the right of the Child The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (commonly abbreviated as the CRC, CROC, or UNCRC) is a human rights treaty setting out the civil, political, economic, social, health and cultural rights of children. The Convention generally defines a child as any human being under the age of eighteen, unless an earlier age of majority is recognized by a country's law. Nations that ratify this convent ion are bound to it by international law. Compliance is monitored by the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child which is composed of members from countries around the world. Once a year, the Committee submits a report to the Third Committee of the United Nations General Assembly, which also hears a statement from the CRC Chair, and the Assembly adopts a Resolutio n on the Rights of the Child. Governments of countries that have ratified the Convention are required to report to, and appear before, the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child periodically to be examined on their progress with regards to the advancement of the implementation of the Convention and the status of child rights in their country. Their reports and the committee' s written views and concerns are available on the committee's website. The United Nations General Assembly adopted the Convention and opened it for signature on 20 November 1989 (the 30th anniversary of its Declaratio n of the Rights of the Child). It came into force on 2 September 1990, after it was ratified by the required number of nations. As of November 2009, 194 countries have ratified it, including every member of the United Nations except Somalia and the United States of America. Somalia's cabinet ministers have announced plans to ratify the treaty. Two optional protocols were adopted on 25 May 2000. The First Optional Protocol restricts the involvement of children in military conflicts, and the Second Optional Protocol prohibits the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography. Both protocols have been ratified by more than 120 states. The Convention deals with the child -specific needs and rights. It requires that states act in the best interests of the child. This approach is d ifferent from the common law approach found in many countries that had previously treated children as possessions or chattels, ownership of which was sometimes argued over in family disputes. In many jurisdictions, properly implementing the Convention requ ires an overhaul of child custody and guardianship laws, or, at the very least, a creative approach within the existing laws. The Convention acknowledges that every child has certain basic rights, including the right to life, his or her own name and identi ty, to be raised by his or her parents within a family or cultural grouping, and to have a relationship with both parents, even if they are separated.

The Convention obliges states to allow parents to exercise their parental responsibilities. The Convention also acknowledges that children have the right to express their opinions and to have those opinions heard and acted upon when appropriate, to be protected from abuse or exploitation, and to have their privacy protected, and it requires that their lives n ot be subject to excessive interference. The Convention also obliges signatory states to provide separate legal representation for a child in any judicial dispute concerning their care and asks that the child's viewpoint be heard in such cases. The Convent ion forbids capital punishment for children. In its General Comment 8 (2000) the Committee on the Rights of the Child stated that there was an "obligation of all States parties to move quickly to prohibit and eliminate all corporal punishment and all other cruel or degrading forms of punishment of children". Article 19 of the Convention states that State Parties must "take all appropriate legislative, administrative, social and educational measures to protect the child from all forms of p hysical or mental violence", but it makes no reference to corporal punishment, and the Committee's interpretation on this point has been explicitly rejected by several States Party to the Convention, including Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom. The European Court of Human Rights has made reference to the Convention when interpreting the European Convention on Human Rights.