Ewa Staworzynska Archives

Poorest Countries Need a Level Playing Field, Business Tells UN Conference

Published on May 11, 2011

Attracting private investment that supports economic growth in the world’s least developed countries relies heavily on creating conducive environments, business representatives told heads of state, ministers, and business and civil society leaders participating in the Fourth UN Conference on Least Developed Countries, held May 9-13 in Istanbul.

The conference pinpointed actions and opportunities to help the 48 countries at the base of the global pyramid achieve more stable, prosperous and sustainable economies and communities. With over 500 business delegates, it provided an unprecedented opportunity to elevate the role of private-sector investment in the poorest nations and to mobilize business engagement toward development objectives.

Among the business delegates were Adam Greene, USCIB’s vice president for labor and corporate responsibility, and Louise Kantrow, the International Chamber of Commerce’s permanent representative to the United Nations.

Read more on ICC’s website.

More on USCIB’s Corporate Responsibility Committee

ILO to Send High-Level Mission to Venezuela to Investigate Attacks on Private Enterprise

Published on March 30, 2011

During its March 23 meeting, the International Labor Organization’s Governing Body unanimously decided to create a high-level tripartite mission to examine the complaints of attacks against the Venezuelan employers’ federation FEDECAMARAS, its leaders and the private sector in general. Since 2003, the ILO has been examining a case, presented by USCIB affiliate the International Organization of Employers (IOE) and FEDECAMARAS, concerning the continuing violations of the Venezuelan business community’s fundamental rights. The mission will take place this summer and will report its findings to the ILO Governing Body at its November 2011 session.

The tripartite mission will include personalities from the business community, trade unions and the ILO. Topics that will be reviewed include bullying and harassment of FEDECAMARAS and its leaders, the creation and promotion of similar employers’ organizations by the government, and permanent attacks on the independent media to prevent employers’ exercising freedom of expression.

The IOE’s secretary general, Antonio Peñalosa commented: “This will be the first such ILO mission to Venezuela and will serve to examine in situ and in detail all the IOE complaints against the government of Venezuela in recent years.” Mr. Peñalosa added that the IOE is pleased that the government had accepted the mission and opened the door to dialogue to resolve the multiple business complaints that accumulated at the ILO, to which the Venezuelan authorities had until now refused to respond.

Click here to read more on IOE’s website.

Staff contact: Ariel Meyerstein

More on USCIB’s Labor and Employment Committee

ICC Secretary General Joins UN Global Compact Board

Published on March 1, 2011

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has appointed Jean-Guy Carrier, secretary general of USCIB’s affiliate the International Chamber of Commerce to the board of the UN Global Compact, an initiative encouraging companies to align their operations with 10 principles including human rights, labor, environment and anti-corruption. Mr. Carrier will contribute a world business perspective on the Compact’s work.

The Global Compact represents more than 8,700 corporate participants and other stakeholders from at least 130 countries and is the world’s largest voluntary corporate citizenship initiative. It is the UN’s highest-ranking advisory body involving business and civil society, which also provides participants with resources for advancing sustainable business models and markets. The 23 board members who provide strategic and policy advice for the Global Compact also oversee implementation of the initiative’s integrity measures.

Click here to read more on ICC’s website.

More on USCIB’s Corporate Responsibility Committee

Implementation of the Updated OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises

Published on January 9, 2011

4223_image002With the 2011 update of the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises, an important instrument for corporate responsibility has been strengthened with input from the business community via BIAC, the Business and Industry Advisory Committee to the OECD, part of USCIB’s global network.

The Guidelines are the most comprehensive non-binding code of responsible business conduct, and cover the areas of disclosure, human rights, employment and industrial relations, environment, bribery, consumer interest, science and technology, competition and taxation. The success of the update will depend on shifting the Guidelines process away from an almost exclusive focus on its complaint mechanism to a more solution-oriented approach modeled on multi-stakeholder initiatives.

The Confederation of German Employers and the Confederation of Netherlands Industry and Employers, both BIAC members, developed a brochure in order to familiarize enterprises with the Guidelines’ recommendations and the National Contact Point procedure.

The brochure addresses major issues, including due diligence and avoiding adverse impacts, in Q&A format and can be downloaded from the BIAC website at www.biac.org/mne_guidelines.htm.

The German and Dutch federations also co-organized and hosted a Conference on Responsible Business Conduct in a Global Context in The Hague on December 12, 2011. The conference focused on two significant developments in the field of corporate responsibility, namely the OECD MNE Guidelines and the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.

The success of the Guidelines will also depend on their ability to contribute to a global level playing field for business. BIAC and USCIB will continue to urge OECD to undertake determined efforts to encourage emerging markets to adhere to the Guidelines.

Staff Contact: Adam Greene

State Department Flyer: OECD MNE Guidelines and U.S. National Contact Point

More on USCIB’s Corporate Responsibility Committee

Fortune 500 Companies Join Together to Support Better Work

Published on November 19, 2009

A program to improve labor standards and competitiveness in factories overseas

L-R: Rajan Kamalanathan (Walmart), Ayesha Barenblat (Business for Social Responsibility), Adam Greene (USCIB), Amanda Tucker (Nike), Laura Rubbo (The Walt Disney Company), Michael Kobori (Levi Strauss & Co.), Cambodian Minister of Commerce Cham Prasidh, Dan Henkle (GAP Inc.), Ros Harvey (Better Work program).
L-R: Rajan Kamalanathan (Walmart), Ayesha Barenblat (Business for Social Responsibility), Adam Greene (USCIB), Amanda Tucker (Nike), Laura Chapman Rubbo (The Walt Disney Company), Michael Kobori (Levi Strauss & Co.), Cambodian Minister of Commerce Cham Prasidh, Dan Henkle (GAP Inc.), Ros Harvey (Better Work program).

Washington, D.C., November 19, 2009 – Five of the biggest U.S. companies are backing an international program to improve compliance with labor standards and competitiveness in the factories where some of their products are made.

The five companies – Gap Inc., Levi Strauss & Co., Nike, Walmart and The Walt Disney Company – will collectively contribute more than $1 million to Better Work, a unique joint program of the International Labor Organization and the International Finance Corporation, the private-sector lending arm of the World Bank.  These contributions will support the development of assessment and training tools that will have direct impacts in supplier factories.

Better Work brings together governments, employers’ and workers’ organizations, and global companies to address working conditions in supplier factories.  The program assesses compliance with international labor standards and national labor laws, posts reports online and provides targeted remedial training to improve compliance with labor standards as well as the competitiveness of the factory.

The program has been very successful in applying an evidence-based approach to monitoring and improving working conditions in developing countries.  The successful Better Factories Cambodia project has resulted in high levels of compliance and improvements that have been sustained despite reduced exports.

Jane Stewart, director of the International Labor Organization’s New York office.

Better Work has expanded services to several other developing countries, where it has already benefited 1.2 million workers and their families by improving working conditions and compliance with labor standards and wage and hour laws.  More country programs are planned over the next five years, expanding the scope of Better Work’s collaborative approach to even more factories.

“Better Work is a perfect example of a public-private collaboration with measurable benefits,” stated Peter M. Robinson, president and CEO of the United States Council for International Business (USCIB), in announcing the decision today.  “By bringing all stakeholders together in a collaborative approach, Better Work is helping to create sustainable change.

“But more support is needed if the program is to have maximum effect.” Mr. Robinson said. “We call on other companies to join with us in financially supporting this great initiative.”

USCIB represents American business interests internationally, including in the ILO where it is the U.S. employer constituent, serves on the ILO Governing Body, and leads the U.S. employer delegation to the ILO’s annual International Labor Conference.  Most of the company contributions to Better Work will be administered by the United States Council Foundation.

USCIB promotes open markets, competitiveness and innovation, sustainable development and corporate responsibility, supported by international engagement and prudent regulation.  Its members include top U.S.-based global companies and professional services firms from every sector of our economy, with operations in every region of the world.  With a unique global network encompassing leading international business organizations, USCIB provides business views to policy makers and regulatory authorities worldwide, and works to facilitate international trade and investment.  More information is available at www.uscib.org.

Contacts:

Adam Greene, USCIB, +1 (212) 703-5056, agreene@uscib.org

Louise Callagy, Gap Inc., press@gap.com

Kelley Benander, Levi Strauss & Co., +1 (415) 501-7598, kbenander@levi.com

Kate Meyers, Nike, +1 (503) 724 9086, Kate.Meyers@nike.com

Jami Lamontagne, Walmart, +1 (479) 273-4314, jami.lamontagne@wal-mart.com

Jonathan Friedland, The Walt Disney Company, +1 (818) 560-8306

Labor Department Panel Looks at Ways to Reduce Child Labor Abroad

Published on June 25, 2009

On June 10, a day designated by the International Labor Organization as World Day Against Child Labor, Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis led a panel discussion in Washington among employers representatives, unions, aid groups and other NGOs to discuss strategies to combat child labor in poorer countries.

Also leading the discussion were Senator Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) and Christina Tchen, the executive director of the White House Council on Women and Girls.  This year marks the 10th anniversary of ILO Convention 182, which seeks to combat the worst forms of child labor.  Sen. Harkin said that much progress has been made since then, but that nations “must keep a light focused on this [issue], to get kids out of the worst forms of child labor and into schools.”

USCIB Vice President Adam Greene reported on the results of a USCIB-sponsored workshop on child labor, held last February in Atlanta.  He said main key conclusions included the need for all stakeholders to raise awareness of the issue, to work together and to focus on holistic solutions that address the root causes of child labor in the societies where it occurs.

Among the other business representatives who spoke at the event, Cindy Sawyer, director of work environment and workplace rights at The Coca-Cola Company, noted that her company has a firm policy prohibiting child labor in its supply chain.  But “no one sector or actor” can solve the problem by itself, she said.  “We need to bring together national and local governments, industry, and local groups” to help fight child labor.

Labor Department press release on the event

Information on World Day Against Child Labor (ILO website)

More on USCIB’s Labor and Employment Committee

WHO Briefing Focuses on Private-Sector Partnerships

Published on May 28, 2008
L-R: IOE President Abraham Katz, Ivan Ivanov (WHO), David Bell (Centers for Disease Control), Jeffrey Gilbert (Pfizer).
L-R: IOE President Abraham Katz, Ivan Ivanov (WHO), David Bell (Centers for Disease Control), Jeffrey Gilbert (Pfizer).

Last month, USCIB hosted a high-level meeting between business representatives, senior staff from the World Health Organization and officials from the International Organization of Employers to discuss workplace and employee health initiatives, and to identify opportunities for collaboration between WHO and business.

The meeting included briefings from companies on their worldwide operations, initiatives for employees and the community within which they operate, and company participation in public-private coalitions to effect broad-based change. The WHO representatives discussed current work on workplace and employee health, including opportunities for private-sector engagement.

Since the WHO work will also be implemented with national governments – focusing on developing countries – discussion included how business can coordinate country programs with WHO national initiatives.

One model partnership is the WHO’s efforts to reduce and eventually eliminate the use of leaded gasoline in developing countrie4s, especially Africa. Major petroleum and auto companies have worked with national governments, the United Nations Environment Program, the World Bank and other bodies to make lead-free gas – along with catalytic converters and more efficient automobiles – available in Africa. The resulting improvements in air quality have directly improved the lives of around a billion people.

Also participating in the meeting were senior representatives from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, who updated participants on the WHO’s new International Health Regulations. Revised following the SARS epidemic, these regulations constitute the international legal framework for response during such epidemics by governments, the WHO and other stakeholders. Pandemic preparedness and coordination between business, supply chains, government and international organizations were also explored.

The meeting concluded with strong agreement that business is a key stakeholder for the WHO’s work in this field, and that there are many other opportunities where collaborations and partnership could be beneficial. There are concrete actions for follow-up, and a mutual desire to maintain an ongoing dialogue.

More on the International Organization of Employers

More on USCIB’s Health Care Task Force

Employers Pledge Closer Action With World Bank

Published on March 7, 2008
L-R: IOE President Abraham Katz, World Bank President Robert Zoellick and IOE Secretary General Antonio Peñalosa.
L-R: IOE President Abraham Katz, World Bank President Robert Zoellick and IOE Secretary General Antonio Peñalosa.

Top representatives of global employers met with World Bank President Robert Zoellick and other bank officials on February 15 in Washington, D.C. to voice support for the bank’s annual “Doing Business” reports, which assess and rank countries based on how easy they make it to run a business, and to explore areas for future cooperation.

The delegation from the International Organization of Employers (IOE), part of USCIB’s global network and the voice of business in the International Labor Organization, was led  by IOE President Abraham Katz, who also serves as president emeritus of USCIB.  It included Antonio Peñalosa, secretary general of the IOE, Ashraf Tabani, president of the Employers’ Federation of Pakistan, and Ronnie Goldberg, executive vice president of USCIB, among others.

The meeting aimed at outlining the IOE’s views on – and support for – the Doing Business report, discussing how the World Bank should integrate and present employment and labor issues in future reports, and exploring areas for immediate as well as future cooperation between the IOE and the World Bank.  Joining Mr. Zoellick from the World Bank’s side were Michael Klein, vice president for financial and private sector development, and Simeon Djankov, who leads the team developing the Doing Business reports, along with several team members.

Mr. Katz expressed the IOE’s strong support for the Doing Business reports and highlighted their importance as a tool for labor market reforms and structural adjustment. He stressed the interest of national employers’ organizations in the report as a means of promoting reform in their own countries.  IOE delegation members also provided detailed comments on the relationship between the report’s labor indicators and pertinent ILO conventions.

On future areas of cooperation between the IOE and the World Bank, consideration was given to increasing IFC work with national employers’ organizations in the collection of data for yearly Doing Business reports.  Building on the success of last September’s launch of the 2008 report at a USCIB forum in New York, participants discussed organizing regional launches with IOE members in major regional hubs.

Areas identified for possible for future collaboration included vocational training and skills development, occupational safety and health, the informal economy, sustainable enterprise, youth employment, SME development, productivity and women’s entrepreneurship.  Participants also discussed holding annual top-level meetings between the IOE and the World Bank.

IOE website

More on USCIB’s Labor and Employment Committee

 

Conference Examines the Often Unseen Face of Forced Labor

Published on March 7, 2008

Seeking to build greater awareness of the thorny problem of forced labor, stakeholders from business, government, NGOs and major international organizations gathered at a February 20 conference in Atlanta to explore how the private sector should address this complex issue in company operations and supply chains.

Coca-Cola CEO Neville Isdell told conference-goers: “No single business, nor all businesses together, can eliminate the evil of forced labor.”
Coca-Cola CEO Neville Isdell told conference-goers: “No single business, nor all businesses together, can eliminate the evil of forced labor.”

The event, entitled “Engaging Business: Addressing Forced Labor,“ was held at the headquarters of the Coca-Cola Company.  It was sponsored by USCIB, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the International Organization of Employers, part of USCIB’s global network, in cooperation with the International Labor Organization.

While child labor is relatively easy to identify, forced labor can be a more complex issue, especially in an era of lengthy supply chains.  “It is rare to find workers under lock and key, or physically forced to work under threat of violence,” according to an ILO briefing paper prepared for the conference.  “But there are a range of more subtle forms of constraint – such as inducing workers into severe indebtedness, confiscating identity documents of migrant workers, or deliberate non-payment of wages – which can be considered as forced labor practices under national laws or international standards.”

Forced labor is the subject of widely ratified ILO core conventions and is one of the principles of the ILO’s 1998 Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work.  And while many codes of conduct at the company, industry and global levels reference forced labor, it has only recently gained attention in the business community as an issue that requires priority attention.

The meeting, which drew some 80 participants, drew on the experience and knowledge of a cross-section of multinational business and employer association participants in helping to formulate a global strategy for employers that can be used to identify forced labor, to provide means for its elimination and to give guidance on its remediation.  Participants reviewed a series of company case studies highlighting innovative solutions to eliminate forced labor.

L-R: Ronnie Goldberg (USCIB) and Donna Chung (Sandler, Travis & Rosenberg).
L-R: Ronnie Goldberg (USCIB) and Donna Chung (Sandler, Travis & Rosenberg).

The need for collaboration was a key theme of the full-day session. “No single business, nor all businesses together, can eliminate the evil of forced labor,” Neville Isdell, Coca-Cola’s chairman and CEO, told conference-goers. “It requires the coming together of the triumvirate of governments, civil society and business.”

Mark Lagon, director of the State Department office charged with combating human trafficking, spoke at the event, urging companies to exert leadership on the issue.

“Our message must be unambiguous and clear: both the public and private sector have zero tolerance for forced labor of any kind,” said Mr. Lagon.  “The unprecedented movement of labor and capital in chains of production of exportable goods promises many advances.  But without rule of law and good corporate citizenship, it also could lead to modern day slavery.”

Participating executives agreed, and said they appreciated the threats posed by forced labor.  “Companies in industries ranging from clothing to food processing to electronics are suffering reputational and business damage from allegations related to forced labor, human trafficking and child labor,” said Ed Potter, director of global workplace rights with Coca-Cola. “Our goal as a company is to continue to build our reputation as a recognized workplace human rights leader that can materially impact the sustainability of local communities where we do business.”

Staff contact: Ariel Meyerstein

More on USCIB’s Labor and Employment Committee

The Coca-Cola Company’s website

ILO website

Employers Cement Relationship With World Bank

Published on March 7, 2008
L-R: IOE President Abraham Katz, World Bank President Robert Zoellick and IOE Secretary General Antonio Peñalosa.
L-R: IOE President Abraham Katz, World Bank President Robert Zoellick and IOE Secretary General Antonio Peñalosa.

Top representatives of global employers met with World Bank President Robert Zoellick and other bank officials on February 15 in Washington, D.C. to voice support for the bank’s annual “Doing Business” reports, which assess and rank countries based on how easy they make it to run a business, and to explore areas for future cooperation.

The delegation from the International Organization of Employers (IOE), part of USCIB’s global network and the voice of business in the International Labor Organization, was led  by IOE President Abraham Katz, who also serves as president emeritus of USCIB.  It included Antonio Peñalosa, secretary general of the IOE, Ashraf Tabani, president of the Employers’ Federation of Pakistan, and Ronnie Goldberg, executive vice president of USCIB, among others.

The meeting aimed at outlining the IOE’s views on – and support for – the Doing Business report, discussing how the World Bank should integrate and present employment and labor issues in future reports, and exploring areas for immediate as well as future cooperation between the IOE and the World Bank.  Joining Mr. Zoellick from the World Bank’s side were Michael Klein, vice president for financial and private sector development, and Simeon Djankov, who leads the team developing the Doing Business reports, along with several team members.

Mr. Katz expressed the IOE’s strong support for the Doing Business reports and highlighted their importance as a tool for labor market reforms and structural adjustment. He stressed the interest of national employers’ organizations in the report as a means of promoting reform in their own countries.  IOE delegation members also provided detailed comments on the relationship between the report’s labor indicators and pertinent ILO conventions.

On future areas of cooperation between the IOE and the World Bank, consideration was given to increasing IFC work with national employers’ organizations in the collection of data for yearly Doing Business reports.  Building on the success of last September’s launch of the 2008 report 2007 at a USCIB forum in New York, participants discussed organizing regional launches with IOE members in major regional hubs.

Areas identified for possible for future collaboration included vocational training and skills development, occupational safety and health, the informal economy, sustainable enterprise, youth employment, SME development, productivity and women’s entrepreneurship.  Participants also discussed holding annual top-level meetings between the IOE and the World Bank.

Staff contact: Ariel Meyerstein

IOE website

More on USCIB’s Labor and Employment Committee