Private Regulation of Labor Standards in Global Supply Chains

Sarosh Kuruvilla

Description

Private Regulation of Labor Standards in Global Supply Chains examines the effectiveness of corporate social responsibility on improving labor standards in global supply chains.Sarosh Kuruvilla charts the development and effectiveness of corporate codes of conduct to ameliorate "sweatshop" conditions in global supply chains. This form of private voluntary regulation, spearheaded by Nike and Reebok, became necessary given the inability of third world countries to enforce their own laws and the absence of a global regulatory system for labor standards. Although private regulation programs have been adopted by other companies in many different industries, we know relatively little regarding the effectiveness of these programs because companies don't disclose information about their efforts and outcomes in regulating labor conditions in their supply chains.Private Regulation of Labor Standards in Global Supply Chains presents data from companies, multi-stakeholder institutions, and auditing firms in a comprehensive, investigative dive into the world of private voluntary regulation of labor conditions. The picture he paints is wholistic and raw, but it considers several ways in which this private voluntary system can be improved to improve the lives of workers in global supply chains.

Sujets

• Employabilité, métiers et formations
• Sustainability
• Labour economics
• Labour

Informations

• Publié par: Cornell University Press
• Date de parution: 15 avril 2021
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781501754548
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 8 Mo

Extrait

PRIVATE REGULATION OF LABOR STANDARDS IN GLOBAL SUPPLY CHAINS

PRIVATE REGULATION OFLABOR STANDARDS INGLOBAL SUPPLY CHAINS Problems, Progress, and Prospects

SàROsh KURUVîLLà

ILR PRESS AN IMPRINT OF CORNELL UNIVERSITY PRESS CORNELL UNIVERSITY PRESSAACLDNAHTIDOONN

Publication of this book was made possible, in part, by a grant from the Office of the Dean of the ILR School at Cornell University and through a gift from Elyse Nathanson.

Copyright © 2021 by Cornell University

All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or parts thereof, must not be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher. For information, address Cornell University Press, Sage House, 512 East State Street, Ithaca, New York 14850.

Visit our website at cornellpress.cornell.edu.

First published 2021 by Cornell University Press

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Kuruvilla, Sarosh, author. Title: Private regulation of labor standards in global supply chains :  problems, progress, and prospects / Sarosh Kuruvilla. Description: Ithaca [New York] : ILR Press, an imprint of Cornell  University Press, 2021. | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2020034859 (print) | LCCN 2020034860 (ebook) |  ISBN 9781501754517 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781501754524 (paperback) |  ISBN 9781501754531 (ebook) | ISBN 9781501754548 (pdf) Subjects: LCSH: Industrial relations. | Industrial procurement—Moral and ethical  aspects. | Industries—Self-regulation. | Employee rights. | Social responsibility of  business. Classification: LCC HD6971 .K858 2021 (print) | LCC HD6971 (ebook) |  DDC 331.2—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020034859 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020034860

Cover image by Carys Boughton, originally created for openDemocracy, 2018.

For Rehana and Irit

Contents

Preface Acknowledgments

Introduction: Private Regulation of Labor Standards in Global Supply Chains since the 1990s

Par t 1 OVERVIEW: PROBLEMS  1.  Behavioral Invisibility: The Reliability of Supplier Data and the Unique Role of Audit Consultants, with Ning Li  2.  Practice Multiplicity in the Implementation of Private Regulation Programs  3.  Causal Complexity: The Varied Determinants of Compliance and Workplace-Level Improvements, with Chunyun Li

Par t 2 OVERVIEW: PROGRESS  4.  Has Private Regulation Improved Labor Practices in Global Supply Chains?: An Empirical Examination, with Jinsun Bae  5.  Wages in Global Supply Chains: Where They Stand and Where We Need to Go, with Jinsun Bae  6.  Freedom of Association and Collective Bargaining in Global Supply Chains, with Matt FischerDaly and Christopher Raymond

Par t 3 OVERVIEW: PROSPECTS  7.  Are Changes in Corporate Governance an Answer?, with Matt FischerDaly

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8.  Aligning Sourcing and Compliance Inside a Global Corporation 9.  From Opacity to Transparency: Pathways to Improvement of Private Regulation

Conclusion

Appendix A: Prior Research on the Determinants of Compliance Appendix B: B Lab Benefit Impact Assessment Questions about Supplier Labor Standards Notes Bibliography Index

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Preface

In 2015, I watched an episode of John Oliver’sLast Week Tonighton HBO in which he focuses on “Fashion.” In it, Oliver pillories a number of companies—such as H&M, Forever 21, Gap Inc., Walmart, and The Children’s Place—for continuing to source their production from suppliers with sweatshop conditions. As I watched, I was struck by the fact that these companies have, for many years, had in placeprivate regulation programsfor their far-flung global supply chains designed tosolvethe sweatshop problem. These programs typically artic- ulate standards for suppliers, state that the supplier will be audited or monitored to ensure their compliance, and include a pledge from the buyer companies to help suppliers remediate violations, rewarding those that do with continued busi- ness and axing those that do not. Oliver lays bare several problems in private regulation, most notably the lack of progress. After nearly twenty-five years of these private regulation programs, we still have major disasters like Rana Plaza: in 2013, a structurally unsound eight- story garment factory in Bangladesh collapsed, killing 1,134 workers. That realization sparked the idea of writing a book about private regulation. My first step was to create the New Conversations Project (NCP) at Cornell Uni- 1 versity’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations (the ILR School), where I teach. Its “tagline” is “sustainable labor practices in global supply chains.” Bruce Raynor, a Cornell trustee, played a key role in obtaining funding, and we assembled an advisory board, headed by Anna Burger, to advise us regarding how to tackle the question of private regulation. The diverse board includes individuals from global brands, unions, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and multi-stakeholder institutions (MSIs) active in private regulation, and design and communications companies, as well as some Cornell students. From the board’s early discussions, we came to realize that what we needed was evidence and new research to understand the lack of progress. Doing research is easy for an academic, to be sure, but getting data from companies and other actors in the supply chain ecosystem proved to be a major challenge. It took us two years of consistent effort before we finally convinced companies, suppliers, auditing firms, and MSIs to share any data. But they did, and this book uses those data to provide the first comprehensive picture of private regulation in action. I wrote this book not solely as a scholarly exercise. I want it to beusedby all the actors in the private regulation ecosystem: global companies; suppliers; global

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