Corporate Social Responsibility and Global Labor Standards

Corporate Social Responsibility and Global Labor Standards PDF Author: Luc Fransen
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136493417
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 302

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Book Description
How effective are multinational companies at improving working conditions in their supply chains? This book focuses on a crucial dynamic in private efforts at regulating labor standards in international production chains. It addresses questions regarding the quality of rules (Are existing efforts to privately regulate labor standards credible?) as well as business demand for private regulation (To what extent are different types of regulation adopted by companies?). This volume seeks to understand the underlying issue of whether private regulation can be both stringent and popular with firms. The study analyzes the nature and origins of, the business demand for and the competition between all relevant private regulatory organizations focusing on clothing production. The argument of the book focuses on the interaction between activists and firms, in consensual (developing and governing private regulatory organizations) and in contentious forms (activists exerting pressure on firms). The book describes and explains an emerging divide in the effort to regulate working conditions in clothing production between a larger cluster of less stringent and a smaller cluster of more stringent private regulatory organizations and their supporters. The analysis is based on original data, adopting both comparative case study and inferential statistical methods to explain developments in apparel, retail and sportswear sectors.

Corporate Social Responsibility and Global Labor Standards

Corporate Social Responsibility and Global Labor Standards PDF Author: Luc Fransen
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136493417
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 302

Get Book

Book Description
How effective are multinational companies at improving working conditions in their supply chains? This book focuses on a crucial dynamic in private efforts at regulating labor standards in international production chains. It addresses questions regarding the quality of rules (Are existing efforts to privately regulate labor standards credible?) as well as business demand for private regulation (To what extent are different types of regulation adopted by companies?). This volume seeks to understand the underlying issue of whether private regulation can be both stringent and popular with firms. The study analyzes the nature and origins of, the business demand for and the competition between all relevant private regulatory organizations focusing on clothing production. The argument of the book focuses on the interaction between activists and firms, in consensual (developing and governing private regulatory organizations) and in contentious forms (activists exerting pressure on firms). The book describes and explains an emerging divide in the effort to regulate working conditions in clothing production between a larger cluster of less stringent and a smaller cluster of more stringent private regulatory organizations and their supporters. The analysis is based on original data, adopting both comparative case study and inferential statistical methods to explain developments in apparel, retail and sportswear sectors.

Rising Above Sweatshops

Rising Above Sweatshops PDF Author: Laura P. Hartman
Publisher: Praeger
ISBN:
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 480

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Book Description
Workers have basic rights that should not be violated, notwithstanding the geographical locale of their work. But those rights often appear to conflict with the economic and commercial needs of both developing nations and multinational enterprises. Creative approaches are necessary if workers' rights are to coexist with commercial success, or even survival. This book introduces the current global labor milieu and showcases innovative solutions via original case studies (e.g., Nike, Levi Strauss), which demonstrate how multinational enterprises can respect worker rights while benefiting from the economic advantages of a global labor market. Part I provides an overview of global labor challenges from a broad variety of perspectives, including economics, public policy, philosophy, and strategic management. The facts and contention of the new sweatshop school of thought are analyzed, along with industrialization and utilization of labor in developing countries; the application of basic human rights to the circumstances of workers; the unique role of nongovernmental organizations in the debate over global labor practices; and the Total Responsibility Management approach to implementing improved labor practices. Part II analyzes case studies, based on original field research, of well-known global corporations. The examined programs provide examples of innovative responses by multinational firms, the International Labor Organization, and other NGOs to challenges regarding global labor practices. These cases can help other firms avoid the unhappy dilemma of either exploiting workers and enduring a public relations backlash, or terminating operations in various developing nations. The true solution lies in companies respecting worker rights, while benefiting from the economic advantages of a global labor market.

The Sweatshop Quandary

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

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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.

Private Regulation of Labor Standards in Global Supply Chains

Private Regulation of Labor Standards in Global Supply Chains PDF Author: Sarosh Kuruvilla
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 1501754548
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 343

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Book Description
Private Regulation of Labor Standards in Global Supply Chains examines the effectiveness of corporate social responsibility on improving labor standards in global supply chains. Sarosh Kuruvilla 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. Private Regulation of Labor Standards in Global Supply Chains 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 he paints 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 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

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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.

Achieving Workers' Rights in the Global Economy

Achieving Workers' Rights in the Global Economy PDF Author: Richard P. Appelbaum
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 150170334X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 344

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Book Description
The world was shocked in April 2013 when more than 1100 garment workers lost their lives in the collapse of the Rana Plaza factory complex in Dhaka. It was the worst industrial tragedy in the two-hundred-year history of mass apparel manufacture. This so-called accident was, in fact, just waiting to happen, and not merely because of the corruption and exploitation of workers so common in the garment industry. In Achieving Workers' Rights in the Global Economy, Richard P. Appelbaum and Nelson Lichtenstein argue that such tragic events, as well as the low wages, poor working conditions, and voicelessness endemic to the vast majority of workers who labor in the export industries of the global South arise from the very nature of world trade and production. Given their enormous power to squeeze prices and wages, northern brands and retailers today occupy the commanding heights of global capitalism. Retail-dominated supply chains—such as those with Walmart, Apple, and Nike at their heads—generate at least half of all world trade and include hundreds of millions of workers at thousands of contract manufacturers from Shenzhen and Shanghai to Sao Paulo and San Pedro Sula. This book offers an incisive analysis of this pernicious system along with essays that outline a set of practical guides to its radical reform.

Making Corporate Social Responsibility a Global Concern

Making Corporate Social Responsibility a Global Concern PDF Author: Lisbeth Segerlund
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317102517
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 239

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Book Description
In recent decades, claims have increasingly been made on transnational corporations to take responsibility for the promotion and protection of human and labour rights in countries where they operate. This behavioural obligation results from the persistent advocacy of non-governmental organizations and is commonly known as corporate social responsibility (CSR). Driven by the theory of the 'norm life cycle model', the book uses an interesting range of case studies, including Nike and the anti-apartheid movement, to trace the development of CSR as an international norm. The development is examined through five selected non-governmental organizations: Clean Clothes Campaign, Fairtrade Labelling Organizations International, Global Exchange, International Business Leaders Forum and the International Labor Rights Fund. The book makes a lucid contribution to an emerging scholarship, and will interest researchers and practitioners involved in issues of global governance and global civil society.

The role of international labour standards in a global economy

The role of international labour standards in a global economy PDF Author: Mike Bogensee
Publisher: GRIN Verlag
ISBN: 3656041121
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 37

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Book Description
Master's Thesis from the year 2011 in the subject Law - Civil / Private, Trade, Anti Trust Law, Business Law, King`s College London (School of Law), course: International Labour Law, language: English, abstract: The phenomenon of globalisation has triggered various trends and changes world-wide, affecting almost every part of life. One of the most heavily influenced realms has been labour and its legal framework. Globalisation has transformed the nature of work as well as the organisation and way in which work is performed nowadays. Due to the technical progress, Multinational Corporations have been equipped with an immense ability to relocate their business wherever and whenever they want to any part of the world, powerful enough to dictate their demands to national governments. National governments have, simultaneously, been weakened and especially developing countries are competing with each other in order to attract MNCs, often by adopting and maintaining low labour standards with the result of a feared “race to the bottom”. Additionally, the International Labour Organisation, historically the main standard-setting institution, has experienced enormous problems in the implementation process and has therefore undergone a paradigm shift. Moreover, other actors have entered the arena of “standard-setting” such as NGOs etc. This essay tries to analyse the challenges of globalisation posed to international labour standards, especially experienced by the ILO. It then continues by examining the various private measures, which have been used so far, covering both public and private measures, and reaching from e.g. codes of conducts to international framework agreements. It is argued that public and private implementation have become increasingly interdependent, and that developing and fostering this interdependency will be crucial for the prospective success and effectiveness of international labour standards in an ongoing globalising world.

Corporate Social Responsibility?

Corporate Social Responsibility? PDF Author: Charlotte Walker-Said
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022624444X
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 403

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Book Description
With this book, Charlotte Walker-Said and John D. Kelly have assembled an essential toolkit to better understand how the notoriously ambiguous concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR) functions in practice within different disciplines and settings. Bringing together cutting-edge scholarship from leading figures in human rights programs around the United States, they vigorously engage some of the major political questions of our age: what is CSR, and how might it render positive political change in the real world? The book examines the diverse approaches to CSR, with a particular focus on how those approaches are siloed within discrete disciplines such as business, law, the social sciences, and human rights. Bridging these disciplines and addressing and critiquing all the conceptual domains of CSR, the book also explores how CSR silos develop as a function of the competition between different interests. Ultimately, the contributors show that CSR actions across all arenas of power are interdependent, continually in dialogue, and mutually constituted. Organizing a diverse range of viewpoints, this book offers a much-needed synthesis of a crucial element of today’s globalized world and asks how businesses can, through their actions, make it better for everyone.

Monitoring International Labor Standards

Monitoring International Labor Standards PDF Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309088615
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 111

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Book Description
Over the past half century, the international flow of goods, services, and capital has grown rapidly. Globalization creates new economic, cultural, and social opportunities, but also poses the challenge of ensuring that workers throughout the world share in these opportunities. Responding to this challenge, the U.S. government carries out a variety of policies and programs aimed at encouraging greater recognition of worker rights around the globe. The U.S. Department of State monitors worker rights abroad and reports on the status of those rights as part of its annual report to Congress in the Country Reports on Human Rights Practices. Building on this history of monitoring and encouraging worker rights around the world, the Trade Act of 2002 includes on the list of overall trade negotiating objectives of the United States, promote respect for worker rights. Monitoring International Labor Standards provides expert, science-based advice on monitoring compliance with international labor standards. This report identifies relevant, valid, reliable, and useful sources of country-level data on labor standards; assesses the quality of existing and potential data and indicators that can be used to systematically monitor labor practices and the effectiveness of enforcement in order to determine compliance with national labor legislation and international standards; identifies innovative measures to determine compliance with international labor standards on a country-by-country basis and to measure progress on improved labor legislation and enforcement; explores the relationship between labor standards compliance and national policies relating to human capital issues; and recommends sustainable reporting procedures to monitor countries' progress toward implementation of international labor standards.