Corporate Responsibility and Labour Rights

Corporate Responsibility and Labour Rights PDF Author: Ruth Pearson
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136568905
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 248

Book Description
The emergence of voluntary corporate codes of conduct since the early 1990s is both a manifestation of and a response to the process of globalization. They have been part of a more general shift away from state regulation of transnational corporations towards corporate self-regulation in the areas of labour and environmental standards and human rights. This work provides a critical perspective on the growth and significance of corporate codes with a particular focus on working conditions and labour rights. It brings together work by academics, practitioners and activists.

Corporate Responsibility and Labour Rights

Corporate Responsibility and Labour Rights PDF Author: Ruth Pearson
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1136568891
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 250

Book Description
The emergence of voluntary corporate codes of conduct since the early 1990s is both a manifestation of and a response to the process of globalization. They have been part of a more general shift away from state regulation of transnational corporations towards corporate self-regulation in the areas of labour and environmental standards and human rights. This work provides a critical perspective on the growth and significance of corporate codes with a particular focus on working conditions and labour rights. It brings together work by academics, practitioners and activists.

The Corporate Responsibility Code Book

The Corporate Responsibility Code Book PDF Author: Deborah Leipziger
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351281038
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 513

Book Description
There is no single code or standard, no panacea that will lead to corporate responsibility (CR). Yet, now, more than ever before, corporations are waking up to the fact that they must adopt codes and implement standards to satisfy the growing demands of an ever-wider and ever-less-trustful spectrum of stakeholders. So, where do companies start? Information overload is nowhere more apparent than in the field of CR. There are millions of pages and web pages written on codes and standards, but most of it is spin: organisations punting to sell their code or standard. The reality is that CR is an emerging field, a new terrain for which maps are much needed, but often imprecise. Each company is different, each with its own challenges, corporate culture, unique set of stakeholders, and management systems. Corporate responsibility is a journey for which, today, there is no single map but a multitude of codes and standards that can be combined in new ways for different journeys. In her many lectures around the world, CSR consultant Deborah Leipziger has been asked the same question over and over again: "What are the best standards for companies seeking to be socially responsible?" Over the course of more than a decade, she has analysed hundreds of codes of conduct and standards to answer that question. This indispensable resource is the result. The Corporate Responsibility Code Book is a guide for companies trying to understand the landscape of corporate responsibility and searching for their own, unique route towards satisfying diverse stakeholders. There is no one-size-fits-all approach. A company may face quite different challenges if it operates in more than part of the world. And yet stakeholders, especially consumers and investors, are keen for some degree of comparability with which they can evaluate corporate performance. There are countervailing forces at work within corporate responsibility: on the one hand is the need for convergence in order to simplify the large numbers of codes and standards; and, on the other hand, the need to foster diversity and innovation. Many of the best codes of conduct and standards are not well known while some CR instruments that are well disseminated are not terribly effective. Some comprehensive codes of conduct achieve nothing, while other quite vague codes of conduct become well embedded into the organisation and foster innovation and change. The book explains some of the best CR instruments available, and distils their most valuable elements. The goal of the book is to help companies select, develop and implement social and environmental codes of conduct. It demonstrates how the world's leading companies are implementing global codes of conduct, including the United Nations Global Compact, the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises, Social Accountability 8000 (SA 8000) and AccountAbility 1000 (AA 1000). The codes in this book cover a wide range of issues, including human rights, labour rights, environmental management, corruption and corporate governance. The book also includes how-to (or process) codes focusing on reporting, stakeholder engagement and assurance. This book is based on interviews with the standard-setters, the implementers of standards, academics, activists and other key stakeholders from around the world; and in many cases includes the full text of the code profiled. Each of the standards and codes described has been shared with the promulgators of the instrument to ensure that the information is as up to date as possible. The Corporate Responsibility Code Book will be an invaluable tool for companies developing their own code, but will also be a key tool for companies with a strong track record in CR, seeking to understand the interrelationships among codes and standards to create their own corporate vision. It will be the key reference text on corporate codes of conduct for many years to come.

Corporate Social and Human Rights Responsibilities

Corporate Social and Human Rights Responsibilities PDF Author: K. Buhmann
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 0230294618
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 293

Book Description
This book challenges the separation between CSR and law. It also demonstrates that BRHR may be gradually separating from CSR through emphasis on state obligations. Authors from around the world discuss how businesses engage in CSR and human rights, and how governments and intergovernmental organisations may support business in taking responsibility

Global Trade, Labour Rights and International Law

Global Trade, Labour Rights and International Law PDF Author: Aneta Tyc
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000395928
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 171

Book Description
This book provides a set of proposals for how best to guarantee effective enforcement of labour rights worldwide. The linkage between labour standards and global trade has been recurrent for some 200 years. At a time when the world is struggling to find a way out of crisis and is striving for economic growth, more than ever there is a need for up-to-date research on how to protect and promote labour rights in the global economy. This book explores the history of the field and also provides an overview of emerging trends and opportunities. It discusses the most recent problems including: the effectiveness and the role of the International Labour Organization (ILO) in the second century of its existence, the World Trade Organization (WTO) and its potential relevance in the protection of labour rights, the effectiveness of the US and the EU Generalised System of Preferences, the impact of corporate social responsibility (CSR) instruments on labour rights, and labour provisions in the international trade agreements concluded by the US and the EU. The book argues, inter alia, that trade agreements seem to be a useful tool to help pave the way out of the crisis and that the United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement (USMCA) can be perceived as a model agreement and a symbol of a shift in perspective from long global supply chains to a focus on regional ones, local production, jobs and a rise in wages. The book will be essential reading for academics and students in the fields of human rights law, international labour law, industrial relations law, international sustainable development law, international economic law and international trade law. It will also be of interest to practitioners, non-government organisations (NGOs) and policy makers.

Fair Wages

Fair Wages PDF Author: Daniel Vaughan-Whitehead
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
ISBN:
Category : Pay equity
Languages : en
Pages : 298

Book Description
Over the last decade the emergence of corporate social responsibility (CSR) has contributed towards better corporate governance by tackling such burning issues as child labour and basic human rights violations. However, as the author argues in this important new book, the time has now come to incorporate wage issues into CSR. Daniel Vaughan-Whitehead proposes a new methodology, the 'Fair Wage' approach, which should allow all CSR actors to make progress in this field through a coherent and comprehensive set of fair wage dimensions and indicators.

The Sweatshop Quandary

The Sweatshop Quandary PDF Author: Pamela Varley
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Business ethics
Languages : en
Pages : 612

Book Description
Addresses the issue of the responsibility of U.S. corporations for the working conditions in factories in developing countries that make their merchandise. Examines the campaign in the U.S. to improve working conditions in these factories, and considers the nature and range of labour problems which need to be dealt with. Includes case studies of Guatemala, El Salvador and Indonesia which discuss the experiences of various companies (e.g. Nike, Reebok, Gap, Liz Claibourne, Starbucks) as well brief studies of seven other countries. Presents and analyses 46 codes of conducts, and looks in particular at programmes designed to eliminate child labour.

The Business of Human Rights

The Business of Human Rights PDF Author: Aurora Voiculescu
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1848138644
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 255

Book Description
In a time when multinational corporations have become truly globalised, demands for global standards on their behaviour are increasingly difficult to dismiss. Work conditions in sweatshops, widespread destruction of the environment, and pharmaceutical trials in third world countries are only the tip of the iceberg. This timely collection of essays addresses the interface between the calls for corporate social responsibility (CSR) and the demands for an extension of international human rights standards. Scholars from a vast variety of backgrounds provide expert yet accessible accounts of questions of law, politics, economics and international relations and how they relate to one another, while also encouraging non-legal perspectives on how businesses operate within and around human rights. The result is an essential incursion for a wide range of scholars, practitioners and students in law, development, business studies and international studies, in this emerging area of human rights.

Social Responsibility in Labour Relations

Social Responsibility in Labour Relations PDF Author: Frans Pennings
Publisher: Kluwer Law International B.V.
ISBN: 9041127836
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 578

Book Description
Since 1945, socially moderated market economies have formed the cornerstone of the European socioeconomic model. Now, however due to powerful global economic, political and demographic tendencies tensions between social and economic interests and values are increasing. These developments create an urgent need for answers, actions and measures on the European level. This wide-ranging but focused collection of essays approaches this important trend from multiple perspectives. Compiled in honour of the major European labour law scholar Teun Jaspers, it encompasses a broad spectrum of analyses and insights by forty-one distinguished contributors from seven countries. Four major tensions are identified: between the European and national level, between fundamental rights and economic freedoms, between workers and employers, and between soft and hard law instruments. Throughout, a comparative approach is emphasized, not only within the EU but also between the EU and China and South Africa. Among the many topics covered are the following: relocation of labour to low-wage countries both within and outside the EU; conditions for tempering the excesses of the free labour market; the legal weight of voluntary standards such as codes of conduct; extending the scope of application of corporate social responsibility norms to transnational enterprises; pressure on national social law due to flexibilization, deregulation and individualization; contract termination protection; employability and training of employees; fixed-term work in the wake of the Mangold ruling; adjustment of working conditions for ill and disabled workers; right to strike; and restructuring of enterprises. In light of the Lisbon strategy, the authors address how the various tensions should be reconciled, especially in the context of the flexicurity approach. The book will be of great interest to academics and practitioners for its clear categorization of the issues which must be overcome when regulating employment and social policy in the context of todayand’s EU multilevel legal order. It pays detailed attention to the legal questions raised by emerging European labour and employment policies in respect of their specific materialization, the opportunities they offer, their feasibility, and the threats they pose to traditional workerand’s protection and, more generally, to traditional concepts of labour law.

Corporate Law, Codes of Conduct and Workers’ Rights

Corporate Law, Codes of Conduct and Workers’ Rights PDF Author: Vanisha H. Sukdeo
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 0429594763
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 229

Book Description
This book critically explores how increased regulation and governance of corporations can be used to help improve the rights of workers amidst an era of union decline. The book posits that soft law techniques such as codes of conduct are more effective in protecting workers than "hard law" i.e. domestic regulation. It starts by analysing the transnational regulation of corporations and codes of conduct, and then puts forward a model code of conduct that can be used by corporations to help increase the protection of workers. Through this model's use of a monitoring scheme, shareholders, activists, and NGOs put pressure on the corporation to reform itself and enact a code which has obligations flowing both ways between the corporation and its employees. The book then looks at the expansions of fiduciary duties and changes to corporate governance, including Benefit Corporations and how they can be used to increase the rights of workers. It then discusses changes to standard union contracts before concluding with an assessment of the best way forward for workers’ rights. By providing a new contribution to the current dialogue on corporate social responsibility and codes of conduct, this book will be a valuable resource for academics working on labour, employment, and business law as well as corporate lawyers.