Corporate Codes of Conduct: the Privatized Application of Labour Standards

1999 ◽  
pp. 205-220 ◽  
Author(s):  
Neil Kearney
Keyword(s):  
Codes Of Conduct ◽  
Labour Standards ◽  
Corporate Codes Of Conduct

scholarly journals Women workers and labour standards: the problem of ‘human rights’

2007 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-57 ◽  
Author(s):  
JUANITA ELIAS
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Women Workers ◽  
Codes Of Conduct ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Economic Rights ◽  
Perspective Drawing ◽  
Global Corporations ◽  
Labour Standards ◽  
Corporate Codes Of Conduct ◽  
Development Paradigm

The International Labour Organisation’s Declaration of Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work of 1998 formalised an approach to global labour issues known as the Core Labour Standards (CLS). The CLS have privileged a specific set of labour standards as possessing the kinds of universalistic qualities associated with ideas of ‘human rights’; the abolition of forced and child labour, equality of opportunity, and trade union rights. But what does this ‘human rights’ approach mean from the point of view of those women workers who dominate employment in some of the most globalised, and insecure, industries in the world? In this article, I make the case for critical feminist engagement with the gender-blind, and neoliberal-compatible, approach to economic rights as set out in the CLS. Not least, this article raises wider concerns about the insufficiency of approaches to economic rights that are designed to work within the (gendered) structures of a neoliberal economic development paradigm. It is suggested that the CLS have endorsed a voluntarist approach to labour standards that views the promotion and regulation of human rights by global corporations as unproblematic. The article challenges this perspective, drawing upon the work of number of feminist scholars working in the area of women’s employment and corporate codes of conduct. These feminist writings have specifically avoided the language of human rights; thus questions need to be asked concerning the possibilities and the limitations that the CLS opens up for women’s human rights activism.

Workers and world order: the tentative transformation of the international union movement

2000 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 533-555 ◽  
Author(s):  
ROBERT O'BRIEN
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Regional Integration ◽  
Industrial Relations ◽  
Codes Of Conduct ◽  
World Order ◽  
Coalition Building ◽  
International Union ◽  
Union Movement ◽  
Labour Standards ◽  
Corporate Codes Of Conduct

The activity of workers' organizations and labour issues is once again on the international relations agenda in fields ranging from labour standards at the WTO, to the terms of regional integration, to corporate codes of conduct, to civil society coalition building. This article argues that the role of the international union movement is transforming from a supporter of US capitalism to a brake on neoliberal industrial relations, to potentially advocating a different form of political economy in alliance with other groups. This transformation has taken place partially because unions have has been expelled from the corridors of power in key states and partially because of their encounter with a series of social movements. The cases of the ICFTU's activity in engaging international organizations and MNCs are used as examples to illustrate this trend. The implications for activity in, and the theory of, the global political economy are potentially significant.

scholarly journals The Value of “Social” Reputation: The Protection of MNE Workers from the Consumer’s Perspective

Global Jurist ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Marta Giaconi ◽  
Lorenzo Giasanti ◽  
Simone Varva
Keyword(s):  
Codes Of Conduct ◽  
Code Of Conduct ◽  
Economic Consequences ◽  
Decent Work ◽  
Social Ranking ◽  
Government Organizations ◽  
Social Reputation ◽  
The Social ◽  
Labour Standards ◽  
Additional Support

Abstract The virtually immediate information propagation has reduced the gap of knowledge once existing between MNEs and customers (i.e. Rana Plaza collapse, 2013). Consumers begin playing an important role in supporting workers. Their growing social awareness has clear economic consequences. MNEs have tried to react to the loss of social reputation, mainly adopting (and imposing to their suppliers) codes of conduct and ethics providing a minimum standard for decent work standards. This article aims to analyze the social reputation and social sustainability that have recently attracted stakeholders’ interest, from different points of view (MNEs, consumers, government and non-government organizations, unions). Those “new” forms of social initiatives (code of conduct, social ranking, consumers campaign, boycotting) are informative and could help to spread ILO labour standards. Clearly, they can represent only an additional support for workers who are struggling in the typical conflict between Work and Capital. The tendency to use a single parameter for assessing the social sensitivity of the MNEs, valid both for the countries “in development” and for those “already developed” risks to lead to a “race to the bottom” trend.

Private Regulation of Labor Standards in Global Supply Chains

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarosh Kuruvilla
Keyword(s):  
Supply Chains ◽  
Codes Of Conduct ◽  
Regulatory System ◽  
Labor Standards ◽  
Global Supply Chains ◽  
Private Regulation ◽  
Labor Conditions ◽  
Voluntary Regulation ◽  
Corporate Codes Of Conduct ◽  
Multi Stakeholder

This book examines the effectiveness of corporate social responsibility on improving labor standards in global supply chains. The book charts the development and effectiveness of corporate codes of conduct to ameliorate “sweatshop” conditions in global supply chains. This form of private voluntary regulation, spearheaded by Nike and Reebok, became necessary given the inability of third world countries to enforce their own laws and the absence of a global regulatory system for labor standards. Although private regulation programs have been adopted by other companies in many different industries, we know relatively little regarding the effectiveness of these programs because companies don't disclose information about their efforts and outcomes in regulating labor conditions in their supply chains. The book presents data from companies, multi-stakeholder institutions, and auditing firms in a comprehensive, investigative dive into the world of private voluntary regulation of labor conditions. The picture painted is wholistic and raw, but it considers several ways in which this private voluntary system can be improved to improve the lives of workers in global supply chains.

Corporate social responsibility meets traditional supervision of fundamental labour rights*

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Tajgman
Keyword(s):  
Corporate Social Responsibility ◽  
Social Responsibility ◽  
Codes Of Conduct ◽  
Background Information ◽  
International Treaties ◽  
Labour Rights ◽  
Civil Society Organisations ◽  
Labour Standards ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Corporate Social

The International Labour Organisation's 1998 Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work prioritised four core labour standards' principles and led to a burst of new ratifications of the international treaties that are the subject of those principles. Ten years on there are important identified gaps in state implementation of the ratified Conventions that are the subject of the four principles. These gaps leave important holes in public policy and legislation. In a number of important substantive areas, these gaps have the effect of leaving it to private actors to figure out what would amount to fulfilling the norms of fundamental labour principle inspired codes of conduct. Inescapably left on their own to figure out approaches, corporate social responsibility (CSR)-respecting enterprises are subject to criticism levelled on the basis of interpretations of these principles given by civil society organisations and labour rights' campaigners. This chapter details this situation. The first part provides the necessary background information. The second part gives concrete examples of how this governance gap raises challenges to implementing CSR initiatives. The third part suggests that, considering the arguable origins of CSR in neo-liberal deregulatory fervour, social dialogue and reform by non-compliant state actors is the only sustainable solution.

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