THE PREMIER OIL AND ITS SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
Premier Oil was one of the first companies to get oil and gas exploration contract in Burma in 1990 from the military regime. The area containing oil and gas pipelines was being under strong control of the military troops for security reasons. These military troops were always a creating havoc for the residents of that area. Forced labour, excessive child labour and stories of day to day violence of the military troops had become frequent in that area. Premier Oil was heavily criticized for allowing such atrocities in its area of operation in Burma. It was also alleged by the pro-democracy leader of Burma and Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi as aiding the military regime as he said “Premier Oil is not only supporting this military government financially, it is also giving it moral support, and it is doing a great disservice to the cause of democracy. It should be ashamed of itself”. Although Premier Oil was continually denying the breach of human rights but finally in 2001 it was forced to withdraw from Burma as the pressure of human rights activists built up. The question here arises that is it is important for corporations to be socially responsible, to give high regards to business ethics? Or can a business survive without acting as socially responsible?
I believe that in the contemporary scenario corporations can not survive without being socially responsible. This is because firstly, as the awareness among consumers regarding environment and business ethics increases their preferences have also changed. As the trend towards green consumers is increasing, corporations cannot merely satisfy their customers merely by quality products. They have to do act socially more responsible- projecting an image that corp ...