UN Global Compact, Business & HR

1. Welcome to class ofHuman Rights, UN, Millennium Development Goals and Businessesin Emerging MarketsbyDr. Satyendra SinghUniversity of WinnipegCanadawww.uwinnipeg.ca/~ssingh5

2. UN Global Compact, Business & HR • UN?  Eco dev  political progress  democracy • What is Global Compact? Universal consensus • UN’s voluntary corporate initiative (Dec, 2007) • Human rights (2) • Labor conditions (4) • Environment (3) • Anti-corruption (1) • 5000 business participants  committed to UNGC • 40% from emerging/developing countries • Improves business performance/QOL • HR issues: Russia? China? India? Africa?

3. Human Rights  Principle 1 • Support, respect and protect HR • Commitment to UNGC • Understand sphere of influence supplier, stakeholders • Compliance with local and international law • ↑ Lawsuits against multinationals for poor HR practices in EM • Promote and raise standards in EM • Address consumer concerns • ↑ Worker productivity and retention • Treat employees with dignity and give fair $ for their work • Build good community relations

4. Human Rights  Principle 2 • Ensure businesses are not complicit in HR abuses • Accusations of complicity  in a no of contexts • Direct complicity  actively assists in HR abuses • Forced relocation of peoples relating to business activity • Beneficial HR abuses committed by others/security • Suppression of a peaceful protest against business activities • Use of repressive measures • Silent  failure to ↓ systemic HR violations • Discrimination  ethnicity, gender, religion, health, etc.

5. Labor Standards  Principle 3 • Uphold freedom of association and right to collective bargaining • Freedom of association • Freely, voluntarily establish and join asso of their own choice • Employers  no discrimination against association members • Collective bargaining • Employer and employees discuss and negotiate their relations • Position vs. interest-based bargaining negotiations • Why is the freedom and collective bargaining important? • Employers and employees understand each other's problems better and find ways to resolve them • Opportunities for constructive, and not confrontational dialogue

6. Labor Standards  Principle 4 • Elimination of forced and compulsory labor • Work extracted under the menace of penalty • Who has not offered himself or herself voluntarily • Who is not free to leave work as per established rules • Slavery • Bonded labour or debt bondage  work as slaves to repay debts of their parents • Child labour  Abusive conditions  Rugs, Mcdonald’s toys • Physical abduction or kidnapping • Sale of a person into the ownership of another • Physical confinement • Exploitative practices  forced overtime • Lodging of deposits for employment  $, personal documents, passport… • Deception or false promises about terms and types of work

7. Labor Standards  Principle 5 • Abolition of child labor • ILO conventions Minimum Age Convention No. 138 • Minimum age for admission to employment or work • Developed countries Developing countries • Light Work 13 Years Light Work 12 Years • Regular Work 15 Years Regular Work 14 Years • Hazardous Work 18 Years Hazardous Work 18 Years • Children have distinct rights • Child labour is damaging to a child’s physical, social, mental, psychological and spiritual development • Deprives them of childhood, dignity; separates from families

8. Labor Standards  Principle 6 • Elimination of discrimination in employment and occupation • Treating differently or less favourably because of characteristics that are not related to the job • race, colour, sex, religion, political opinion, social origin, age, disability, HIV/AIDS status, trade union membership, and sexual orientation • Recruitment, remuneration, hours of work and rest, paid holidays, maternity protection, security of tenure, job assignments, performance assessment and advancement, training and opportunities, job prospects, social security, occupational safety and health • Isolates employer, missed opportunities, ↓ competitive, bad reputation…

9. Environment  Principle 7 • Support precautionary approach to env. Challenges • 1992 Rio Declaration If threat of serious or irreversible damage, use cost-effective measures to prevent environmental degradation • What businesses can do? • Prevent environmental damage  treatment costs more later  company image  country image • Invest in sustainable production methods  ↓ resources depletion and env. degradation  ↑ environment performance  ↓ financial risk  important consideration for insurers • Invest in R&D to develop environmentally friendly products  ↑long-term benefits

10. Environment  Principle 8 • Initiate to promote environmental responsibility • 1992 Rio Earth Summit Business and industry should ↑ self regulation through initiatives integrated into business planning, decision-making, openness and dialogue with employees and the public. • To ensure environmental responsibility: • Re-define company vision, policies and strategies 3BL • Work with suppliers to ↑ environmental performance • Adopt voluntary charters to confirm acceptable behaviour /perf. • Measure and communicate progress as business practices, including reporting against global operating standards • Ensure transparency and unbiased dialogue with stakeholders

11. Environment  Principle 9 • Encourage development and diffusion of environmentally friendly technologies • That protects the environment, ↓ pollution, uses all resources, recycles wastes and products and handles residual wastes in a more acceptable manner • Establish a corporate or individual company policy • Inform stakeholders – env perf and benefits of the technology • Focus on R&D to ‘design for sustainability’. • Use Life Cycle Assessment to develop new tech and products • Employ Environmental Technology Assessment tools (EnTA) • Stipulate minimum environmental criteria for suppliers • Seek partners to obtain the “best available technology”

12. Anti-corruption  Principle 10 • Work against all forms of corruption • Corruption • the abuse of entrusted power for private gain • Extortion • When asking or demand is accompanied by threats that endanger the personal integrity or the life of the person • Bribery, Transparency International: • gift, loan, fee, reward… from a person to do something dishonest, illegal or a breach of trust • Steps to fight corruption • Internal: Anti-corruption policies within organizations • External: Report corruption in the annual Communication • Collective: Join forces with industry peers, stakeholders…

13. Use of the LOGO

14. MillenniumDevelopmentGoals (MDG)

15. MillenniumDevelopmentGoals