LABOUR: Dents in Dignity of Labour

By Marwaan Macan-Markar Reprint | | Print |

Marwaan Macan-Markar

MEXICO CITY, Oct 21 1999 (IPS) - Women applying for jobs in the garment factories clustered near the US border suffer indignities that are not applied to men – such as being asked questions by prospective employers about their sexual activities.

The demand for detail does not stop there. If a woman is hired by the multinational companies operating in the export processing zones of Mexico, she is subjected to a further invasion of privacy, including a battery of queries on the use of birth control methods, whether she is pregnant or proof that she is still menstruating.

The Mexican government has done nothing to halt such questionable hiring practices in the “madquiladora” plants, says the US-based organisation, Human Rights Watch.

This is despite the fact that sex discrimination or preventing pregnant women from working – violates both Mexico’s domestic labour laws and its international human rights obligations.

Labour activists want the government to remedy the situation and also want action by the multinational companies involved in such discriminatory practices.

The National Labour Committee (NLC), formed in the United States in 1981 to campaign for the rights of workers – initially in Central America – has pursued one strategy that, it says, has borne positive results – a campaign for multinational companies to undergo regular social audits.

Such audits examine just how “socially responsible” these companies have been in the course of their business.

Toy makers like Disney and Mattel, who came in for surge of public criticism over their operations in China, have improved as a result, says the NLC.

“Disney has carried out 10,000 inspections to date (and) the independent panel Mattel has set up to monitor its factories is considered a model in the industry, even by activists,” it adds.

However, as pointed out in the annual Human Development Report of the UN Development Programme, the activities of many multinational companies go “unrecorded and unaccounted.” They need to go beyond “reporting just to their shareholders” by being brought into the frame of global governance.

According to the Human Development Report, companies who take their social responsibilities more seriously have done so as a result of the activism of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and other civil society institutions.

“Codes of conduct have moved from vague promises to detailed rules, with the best now monitored by outside auditors,” the Report notes. It also calls for “social responsibility from the beginning,” given the importance and dominance of multinational companies in the global economy.

A much welcome corporate scenario would be for the companies to agree on common principles of social accountability in the following areas:

– Human concerns – to ensure compliance with labour standards and human rights.

– Economic efficiency – to ensure fair trade and competitive markets.

– Environmental sustainability – to avoid degradation and pollution.

According to PricewaterhouseCoopers, the British-based accounting and international business services organisation, multinational companies will not be able to ignore the trend toward social auditing.

The company recently conducted a global survey among 22,000 consumers that lends weight to this view.

“Forty percent responded negatively to actions by a company perceived as not socially responsible; half of this number – one in five worldwide-reported avoiding the company’s product or speaking out to others against it,” the survey found.

It also revealed that the majority of consumers worldwide (nearly 6 in 10) form their impressions of a company based upon “labour practices, business ethics, responsibility to society at large, or environmental impacts.”

And 90 percent of those polled agreed that large companies “should do more than focus only on profitability.”

“Companies often believe that ethical issues such as governance, environment, human rights, and actions such as bribery are of no relevance to the average consumer. But access to instant news sources and the Internet have created a more informed consumer,” says Harold Kahn, a partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers.

This business organisation, which is among the emerging social auditors of multinational companies, has also made other inferences from its global survey:

– Within the next 10 years, the valuation methods used by Wall Street analysts will include new metrics – such as social performances and intellectual capital-to assess more accurately the net worth of a company.

– Within the next five years, 70 percent of North America and European companies will assign Board responsibility for areas of reputation and social responsibility.

– Within the next 10 years, the majority of global multinationals will publish a broader range of key non-financial information along financial data, covering areas such as environment, diversity, community development and anti-corruption.

Mattel’s factories in East Asia were among those that the Asia Monitor Resource Center had on its “watch list” for a long time, exposing it for “sweatshop assembly lines” that produce the copany’s famous “Barbie” dolls.

For the NLC, though, the outstanding need is for “Corporate Disclosure – the People’s Right to Know.”

Such a campaign would “drag the multinationals out from behind close doors and into the light of day,” since the NLC believes the companies do not want a “widespread public debate focused on conditions and wages in their offshore factories.”