Rights Corner
Global
labour rights
A
child in a Chinese sweatshop and a clerk in a US office
working for the same company are subject to very different
labour regulations. In the global economy global labour
standards are not yet a priority of the international
community. Transnational corporations (TNCs) benefit from
the recent wave of trade liberalization and increasingly
shift their operations to countries with low wages and
limited labour rights. The lack of labour rights and trade
unions along with a cheap and flexible labour force becomes
an important bargaining factor in the competition for
foreign direct investment. TNCs often use their power
to push down wages and conditions of employment in return
for investment. In particular labour-intensive and dangerous
production has moved to countries where labour rights
are disregarded.
As
TNCs spread their operations across more and more countries,
global labour rights become increasingly important. In
1998, the International Labour Organization (ILO) adopted
the "Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights
at Work". The adoption of the declaration marked
a renewed commitment of the member states to respect,
promote and realize principles such as the freedom of
association, the right to collective bargaining, elimination
of all forms of forced labour, abolition of child labour,
and elimination of discrimination in employment and occupation.
International regulations, however, remain a weak instrument
in the struggle for global labour rights as many countries
do not enforce them even if they have ratified the conventions
in question. Therefore, NGOs try to hold companies who
ignore basic labour rights at any stage of the production
process directly responsible. For example, they initiate
boycott campaigns, such as the appeal to boycott Nike
in response to the appoling conditions in production sites
of the sportswear giant. In reaction, many corporations
nowadays have adopted a Code of Conduct that deals with
the rights of their employees. Multinationals, however,
often outsource production and claim not to be responsible
for labour standards in the factories of their subcontractors,
while they still profit from the low labour costs and
the disrespect for basic human rights in the workplace.
Traditionally,
labour rights are the domain of trade unions and these
have a long history of fighting for workers' rights, mainly
within a state, although there has been international
co-operation among unions since the 19th century. With
the globalization of the economy, more NGOs are engaging
in the struggle for global labour rights along with trade
unions who increasingly co-operate across national borders
and within particular industries. Until recently, trade
unions in the North were mainly concerned with the loss
of jobs in their countries, claiming that low labour standards
in other countries represented an unfair advantage. NGOs
have been more concerned about labour rights in the South,
which deteriorated even further after more TNCs moved
their production to developing countries. Lately, NGOs
and trade unions in the North as well as in the South
have improved their co-operation across national boundaries
to promote global labour rights, although there are still
conflicts between the different interests. This said,
however, the line between trade unions and NGOs is sometimes
somewhat blurred, especially in many developing countries.
Trade
unions and NGOs agree on basic global labor rights, which
should include, for example, the freedom of association,
collective bargaining, abolition of forced labour, equal
opportunities for women and men, and safe working conditions.
These basic principles are often violated, for instance,
in sweatshops and Export Processing Zones. In this context
we can identify women and children as particular vulnerable
groups, who are regularly abused and exploited. In view
of the lack of commitment by TNCs regarding international
legislation, labour activists engage in fair trade and
other initiatives to realize global labour rights
Source:
Choike- A portal on southern civil societies.
