Monitoring International Labor Standards Quality of Information: Summary of a Workshop (2003) / Chapter Skim
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7. Nongovernmental Labor Regulation and Information Disclosure
7. Nongovernmental Labor Regulation and Information Disclosure
Pages 54-64
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From page 54... ...
Bush, luly 9, 2002 O'Rourke noted that Bush's calls for increased transparency, improved corporate accountability, and new methods for auditing the auditors, although focused on financial reporting, were "all relevant to our topic." He also noted that financial auditing was a "much more mature and more regulated form of company self-reporting" than voluntary monitoring of labor conditions.
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From page 55... ...
Another reason for the rapid growth of nongovernmental labor regulation, he said, is that global supply chains have developed and grown so quickly that enforcement of labor laws by individual states may be difficult or ineffective. In addition, government regulators have not provided the information on labor conditions increasingly demanded by consumers, socially responsible investors, and activists in the developed world.
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From page 56... ...
O'Rourke mentioned a number of"related initiatives," designed to encourage corporations' voluntary systems of monitoring labor conditions. These include global agreements between multinational corporations and networks of unions, the UN Global Compact (participating companies report annually on labor rights and environmental standards)
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From page 57... ...
These long supply chains, together with multiple layers of ownership ancl shifting locations, can make it difficult for auditors to track ancl monitor the correct factories in developing nations. In aclclition, monitors who are not closely affiliated with the owners of the factory may have difficulty obtaining access.
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From page 58... ...
And, O'Rourke noted, the growing supply of information from monitoring includes data on corrective actions that can be valuable in learning "how we can improve conditions." Finally, he said, corporate data could shed light on broad labor conditions throughout an entire country. Moving Monitoring Forward In the future, O'Rourke said, the many different monitoring systems existing today may move toward more standardized reporting, which would allow the systems to work together and the public to compare reports from the different systems and establish benchmarks.
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From page 59... ...
However, O'Rourke said that the idea of a "no sweat" label for products "has been called into question," partly because of the difficulty of getting accurate information on labor conditions across complex global supply chains. Consumers need more information than can be provided on a label, including data on a corporation's approach to identifying and solving labor problems and the role of workers in those solutions.
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From page 60... ...
He said that, at the UN meeting launching the Global Compact, the chairman of Nike was the only company representative who spoke out in favor of global transparency, global protocols, and global monitoring. Although monitoring efforts are moving forward, Kidd said, he asked whether current efforts are "really going to reach enough workers to be meaningful." He reminded the audience that the workers currently being monitored represent a very small percentage of all workers in the developing world, and he urged them not to forget the "masses of people" in the informal sector and cottage production.
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From page 61... ...
Roe argued that data from individual factories and companies may provide greater incentives for improving labor conditions than data on countrywide labor conditions. He said that ignoring the growing body of information from voluntary monitoring would mean avoiding the "public policy purposes" of labor monitoring.
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From page 62... ...
The pilots are designed to develop integrated audits measuring organic agriculture, fair trade, and labor practices, and to market the four monitoring programs within the food industry. Tepper Marlin noted that O'Rourke had suggested evaluating current monitoring programs based on four criteria legitimacy, rigor, accountability, and complementarily.
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From page 63... ...
Among the most important indicators, she said, are those that measure improvement in freedom of association and other labor rights. Tepper Marlin said that certification programs are valuable in meeting consumer needs for "clear and simple information." Factory audits designed to provide such information "become effective" when they lead to onsite remediation programs, with independent verification that improvements are being made.
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From page 64... ...
In further discussion, Dwight Justice of the ICFTU commented that none of the respondents had mentioned the role of trade unions in introducing the ILO core standards into voluntary codes of conduct. He noted that trade unions partner in the Ethical Trading Initiative, which recognizes them as "the formal voice of workers." In his experience, the only two ways workers are protected are by enforcement of laws and by themselves.
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