Under the regime of private company or multi-stakeholder voluntary codes of conduct and industry social auditing, workers have absorbed low wages and unsafe and abusive conditions; labour leaders and union members have become the targets of both government and factory harassment and violence; and trade union power has waned. Nowhere have these private systems of codes and audits so clearly failed to protect workers as in Bangladesh’s apparel industry. However, international labour groups and Bangladeshi unions have succeeded in mounting a challenge to voluntarism in the global economy, persuading more than 180 companies to make a binding and enforceable commitment to workers’ safety in an agreement with 12 unions.
The extent to which this Bangladesh Accord will be able to influence the entrenched global regime of voluntary codes and weak trade unions remains an open question. But if the Accord can make progress in Bangladesh, it can help to inspire similar efforts in other countries and in other industries.
The manual provides information on child labour including the worst forms of child labour, hazardous work and hazardous child labour lists, conducting child labour inspections, the labour inspector’s role when faced with the commercial sexual ex...Read More
The commentary explains how and why the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights should apply throughout the maritime environment to all business enterprises and in all business operations throughout the maritime supply chain, both on land ...Read More
The Rapid Assessment of Children in Child Labour in Honiara, Solomon Islands, was commissioned by the International Labour Organization (ILO) in response to concerns raised at the first National Child Labour and Trafficking Forum in Honiara in Augu...Read More
With the global refugee crisis showing no signs of abating, multinational companies need to consider how their supply chain interacts with refugees, who are often more vulnerable to forced labor when they seek out work in a new country. Combating F...Read More
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