Jan 26: Non-standard employment the root cause of labor dispute surge
Since last year, the labor dispute cases have seen a surge in numbers nationwide. There are several factors such as free arbitration, financial crisis, and insufficient personnel for handling arbitration. Experts believe that the root cause is non-standard employment in enterprises.
Jan 26: MQP Promotes Social, Environmental, and Quality Performance at Fabric Mills
New Industry Collaboration Enables Retailers and Brands to Share Information on Social, Environmental and Quality
The Mill Qualification Program (MQP) advances new solutions for responsible textile production Intertek, the leading global provider of international trade solutions, today announced it has partnered with leading global retailers, consumer brands and fabric mills to launch an unprecedented industry program to facilitate industry-wide collaboration around better solutions for the social, environmental and quality performance of global fabric mills.
Jan 26: Business backs sustainability as 'innovation catalyst'
Lack of consumer awareness of sustainability of goods and the absence of an hazard-based regulatory approach to new products are holding back opportunities for sustainable innovation, argued stakeholders participating in a workshop last week (8 January). Sustainable innovation 'crucial' The value chain of innovation must take into consideration the fact that spending even one cent on innovation that is not sustainable is a "waste of money" and a "tragedy", said David Cook, CEO of The Natural Step, a sustainable development NGO.
Search engines such as Google generate massive CO2 emissions, shows a study by US physicist Alex Wissner-Gross. Describing his research in the Sunday Times, the Harvard academic said that despite Google's secrecy over its carbon footprint, he had calculated on the basis of publicly available information that each Google search generates an estimated 5-10 grams of CO2. The newspaper reported that two Google searches releasing 7g of CO2 were almost the equivalent of boiling a kettle for a cup of tea. Wissner-Gross later said his work was focused on the web overall, and the example of tea kettles was not one of his.
Jan 26: Developing world more optimistic than U.S. on climate change
The Chinese care more about climate change than Americans, according to a new global survey out today. So, it seems, do Brazilians, South Africans and others in fast-growing economies across the world.
The Wall Street Journal has slammed Dell over the announcement it made back in August about reaching its carbon neutral goal. The problem, according to WSJ, is that Dell only counts the "emissions produced by its boilers and company-owned cars, its buildings' electricity use, and its employees' business air travel." It doesn't count all the emissions associated with Dell: "All the emissions produced by its suppliers and consumers each amount to about 10 times the footprint Dell has defined for itself. That means the company is only neutralizing about 5% of the greenhouse gases that go into the making and use of its products," the article states. The WSJ article also calls out Dell for mostly purchasing renewable energy credits in order to make the carbon neutral claim and raises questions about the legitimacy of RECs.
Lean times... mean times... end times... down turn... recession... back to the wall... tighten your belts... 2009 is going to be much, much worse than 2008... The messages are grim. Full article (PDF 73kb)
Historic agreement on unionisation signed by security group
UNI Property Services has signed a global agreement with G4S, the world’s largest security solutions group. The agreement makes clear that all of G4S’s 570,000 employees, spread across more than 110 countries, have the right to organise unions in a free and fair atmosphere. The agreement also states that G4S will follow international and national labour law in its relations with workers. G4S is the second largest private employer in the world, and the largest UK multinational corporation. This agreement, the first global framework agreement signed between a global union and a UK corporation, paves the way for improvements in the lives of hundreds of thousands of workers, including many in the Global South. In many of the countries where it operates, G4S is the industry leader. Improvements in employment conditions and wages negotiated by local unions pursuant to this agreement will have a positive effect not only on the company’s employees but on the security sector overall, on the workers’ families, and on the communities in which they live and work.
Some leading retailers all talk, no action on CSR’ says global union
Consumers should know that some high profile brands are failing to live up to their own hype when it comes to corporate social responsibility, says the Global Union representing workers in the clothing, textile and footwear industries. Says Neil Kearney, General Secretary of the Brussels-based International Textile, Garment and Leather Workers’ Federation: “Nearly every brand and retailer claims to have their own code of conduct with some suggesting there are as many as 10,000 such codes in existence. But if these codes are not applied they constitute little more than a waste of paper.
Global union calls on leading brands and retailers to take urgent action to protect migrant workers from abuse
On the occasion of International Migrants Day on December 18, the Global Union representing workers in the textile, clothing and leather sector has made approaches to leading brands and retailers in the sector asking them to take urgent action to protect the rights of migrant workers employed in their supply chains. The Global Union has also made approaches to the various multistakeholder initiatives.
In a further twist to what is already an epic financial crisis comes the news of Bernard Madoff’s alleged US$50bn hedge fund fraud. And one after another commentators are asking “where was the regulator?”.
Though the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) regularly investigated Mr Madoff’s securities business, it did not probe his separate investment advisory business. The growing desire to put in place more appropriate and robust regulatory frameworks to prevent further financial catastrophe is likely to spread to other areas of business.
Protecting corporate responsibility in tough economic times
By Doug Cahn (The Cahn Group) and Patrick Neyts (Vectra International)
There are few more poignant moments in the life of a business manager than when the chief financial officer announces an across-the-board budget cut. “All departments are being asked to share the burden of these difficult financial times,” the CFO declares. These words should come as no surprise in today’s economy. With the most widespread economic crisis since the great depression upon us, brands and retailers are struggling to respond to an uncertain marketplace. Consumer confidence has been shattered and the future is unknown. Prudent executives will understandably keep expenditures in line with revenues as they manage the bottom line. Corporate Responsibility (CR) programs will not be spared the budget axe. (Continues... see full article)
( CSRWire, 10/30/2008 ) http://vcr.csrwire.com/node/11623
