scholarly journals The Rana Plaza Collapse and the Case for Enforceable Agreements with Apparel Brands

2021 ◽  
pp. 137-169
Author(s):  
Ben Vanpeperstraete
Keyword(s):  
Supply Chains ◽  
Working Conditions ◽  
Transnational Corporations ◽  
Global Supply Chains ◽  
Negotiated Agreements ◽  
Role Of The State ◽  
Conventional Models ◽  
Corporate Social ◽  
New Strategies

AbstractDisasters like the Rana Plaza collapse and the Tazreen Fashions and Ali Enterprises fires painfully demonstrate the limits of conventional models of labour regulation in global supply chains. Buyer-driven markets characterised by outsourcing, subcontracting and offshoring, and the price pressure that results from them, undermines both the regulatory role of the state and the potential for collective bargaining. As a result, poor and unsafe working conditions prevail in transnational corporate supply chains in the garment industry. The aforementioned disasters offer a textbook example of the challenges facing the current clothing industry and the limits of the dominant “Corporate Social Responsibility” (CSR) model used to address labour rights abuses.Yet, the responses to these disasters also provide fertile ground for alternative “worker-driven” strategies, where worker organisations enter into negotiated supply chain agreements with transnational corporations and hold the latter to account. The Bangladesh Accord and Rana Plaza Arrangement, as well as the corollary Tazreen Compensation Agreement and Ali Enterprises Compensation Agreement attempt to develop a counter-hegemonic alternative to dominant CSR practices and offer new strategies for social justice within global supply chains. This chapter describes and contextualises these agreements in a broader trajectory of labour organisations bargaining and negotiating such agreements with lead firms, highlighting how the post-Rana Plaza momentum made significant strides possible in terms of the depth, scope and enforceability of these negotiated agreements. The chapter identifies the strengths of these developments, but also identifies room for improvement for future negotiated enforceable agreements with apparel brands.

scholarly journals Mind the gap: Grass roots ‘brokering’ to improve labour standards in global supply chains

2017 ◽  
Vol 71 (4) ◽  
pp. 584-609 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah J Kaine ◽  
Emmanuel Josserand
Keyword(s):  
Supply Chain ◽  
Supply Chains ◽  
Working Conditions ◽  
Global Supply Chains ◽  
Significant Shift ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Whistle Blowing ◽  
Grass Roots ◽  
Labour Standards ◽  
Implementation Gaps

While governance and regulation are a first step in addressing worsening working conditions in global supply chains, improving implementation is also key to reversing this trend. In this article, after examining the nature of the existing governance and implementation gaps in labour standards in global supply chains, we explore how Viet Labor, an emerging grass-roots organization, has developed practices to help close them. This involves playing brokering roles between different workers and between workers and existing governance mechanisms. We identify an initial typology of six such roles: educating, organizing, supporting, collective action, whistle-blowing and documenting. This marks a significant shift in the way action to improve labour standards along the supply chain is analysed. Our case explores how predominantly top-down approaches can be supplemented by bottom-up ones centred on workers’ agency.

scholarly journals The Role of NGOs in Building CSR Discourse around Human Rights in Developing Countries

2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-19 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jae-Eun Noh
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
Social Movements ◽  
Information Flow ◽  
Transnational Corporations ◽  
Development Projects ◽  
Global Networks ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Corporate Social ◽  
Development Ngos

As a response to increasing influences of transnational corporations (TNCs) over the lives of the poor, development NGOs have tried to promote their responsibility in cooperative ways: partnership in development projects and voluntary regulations. Notwithstanding some degree of success, these cooperative ways have failed to bring fundamental changes to TNCs. This article outlines the limitations of the mainstream corporate social responsibility (CSR) and the potential of grassroots social movements to make TNCs accountable. People in developing countries have been neglected in the CSR agenda; however, they have power to change corporations as labourers, consumers and citizens. Drawing on case studies, this article suggests that NGOs should support grassroots people in building global networks, constructing collective values and creating the information flow in order to overcome the current shortcomings of community-driven social movements. For these new roles as advocates and facilitators for grassroots movements, NGOs need to transform themselves by pursuing core values.  

scholarly journals Ethical Issues in Global Supply Chains

2007 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bodo B. Schlegelmilch ◽  
Magdalena Öberseder
Keyword(s):  
Supply Chain ◽  
Supply Chains ◽  
Working Conditions ◽  
Ethical Issues ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Global Supply Chains ◽  
Unethical Conduct ◽  
Production Methods ◽  
Technological Advances ◽  
Consumer Demands

Despite all technological advances, global supply chains are always based on the interaction of people. And wherever people interact, a kaleidoscope of ethical issues emerges. While consumer demands and concerns have undoubtedly led to an increased awareness of unethical conduct in the supply chain, contravening forces, such as the relentless pressures for low cost products and the ease by which consumers are purchasing non-deceptive counterfeits, should also not be ignored. Many retailers are now embracing ethical issues by emphasising, for example, that they take care of the production methods and working conditions pertaining to the goods they offer.

Corporate Social Responsibility in the Bahraini Construction Companies

2016 ◽  
pp. 40-51
Author(s):  
Asma Ayari
Keyword(s):  
Social Responsibility ◽  
Working Conditions ◽  
Construction Sector ◽  
Ethical Business ◽  
Construction Companies ◽  
Gulf Countries ◽  
International Labor ◽  
The Social ◽  
Corporate Social

The purpose of this study is to give a description of ethical business cultures in Bahraini construction companies. Construction companies in the Middle East are facing charges in terms of exploitation of workers and poor working conditions. The construction sector is one of the most dynamic in Bahrain, and its participation in national GDP is increasing. It is also the most important sector in the creation of jobs. Bahrain, as in the Gulf countries, employs a workforce from India and Asia, one of the lowest in the international labor market. This study analyzes the reality of the CSR in the construction sector and proposes some guidelines for the role of Bahraini stakeholders in the implementation of the social responsibility.

Comment on Sonja Dänzer. Structural Injustice in Global Production Networks: Shared Responsibility for Working Conditions

2011 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Starmanns
Keyword(s):  
Supply Chains ◽  
Working Conditions ◽  
Corporate Responsibility ◽  
Shared Responsibility ◽  
Global Supply Chains ◽  
Production Networks ◽  
Global Production Networks ◽  
Structural Injustice ◽  
Discursive Approach

AbstractThis commentary's claim is that Dänzer's argument does not sufficiently take into account the complexities of the global production of goods, the current corporate responsibility practices and the problems of attributing responsibility to single actors. I argue in favour of a shared responsibility and briefly present a discursive approach for attributing MNE's share of responsibility in global supply chains, which requires obligatory transparency.

scholarly journals Global supply chains and social relations at work: Brokering across boundaries

2018 ◽  
Vol 71 (4) ◽  
pp. 459-480 ◽  
Author(s):  
Juliane Reinecke ◽  
Jimmy Donaghey ◽  
Adrian Wilkinson ◽  
Geoffrey Wood
Keyword(s):  
Supply Chains ◽  
Social Relationships ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Global Supply Chains ◽  
Employment Relations ◽  
Cultural Boundaries ◽  
Economic Goods ◽  
Work And Employment

Global supply chains are not just instruments for the exchange of economic goods and flow of capital across borders. They also connect people in unprecedented ways across social and cultural boundaries and have created new, interrelated webs of social relationships that are socially embedded. However, most of the existing theories of work are mainly based at the level of the corporation, not on the network of relations that interlink them, and how this may impact on work and employment relations. We argue that this web of relations should not just be seen in economic, but also social terms, and that the former are embedded and enabled by the latter. This article argues for the value of focusing on the role of brokers and boundary workers in mediating social relations across global supply chains. It develops four approaches that lie on a spectrum from structural perspectives focused on brokers who link otherwise unconnected actors to more constructivist ones focused on boundary workers performing translation work between domains.

scholarly journals Financial and economic aspects of corporate social responsibility

2020 ◽  
Vol 89 ◽  
pp. 07002
Author(s):  
V.V. Ilyashenko
Keyword(s):  
Corporate Social Responsibility ◽  
Social Responsibility ◽  
Oil And Gas ◽  
Special Role ◽  
Financial Conditions ◽  
National Wealth ◽  
Role Of The State ◽  
Corporate Social ◽  
The Impact

The article shows the importance of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in ensuring sustainable development of the country. The types of CSR and its features in various states are considered. The author describes the economy of the Russian Federation and its impact on the system of corporate social responsibility in the country. The high profitability of resource-extractive industries and their use of the country’s national wealth defines their special role in CSR not only towards their employees through wages and the allocation of social benefits from profit, but also to the society. It is shown that the established country’s political system significantly influences the possibility of implementing a system of corporate social responsibility. The author characterizes the significant regulatory and stimulating role of the state in social development through taxation and the structure of government spending. When assessing the financial conditions of CSR, the author analyses the impact of capital outflow on its development. Corporate social responsibility also includes the responsibility of organizations to the environment. The author provides a rating assessment of Russian oil and gas, mining and metallurgical companies openness in terms of environmental responsibility.

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