The Accord and Alliance programs have one year left in their collective efforts to make the Bangladeshi garment industry safe and sustainable. What have they have achieved to date and what remains to be done?
Four Years After Rana Plaza, New Research Brief Spotlights Lagging Progress on Workplace Safety
How Migrant Workers Literally Pay To Build Architecture
The Trump Administration Fails Tillerson’s Test
Resuming Arms Sales to the Saudis Fails the Tillerson Test
Qatar’s Struggle to Reform Labor Laws
Center Report Finds Migrant Workers Bear the Cost Burden of Their Own Recruitment
A new study from the Center finds that construction companies operating in the Arabian Gulf are able to recruit millions of low-wage migrant workers without incurring the costs of the recruitment process. Instead, in this highly irregular system, most workers themselves are paying for their own recruitment – and much more – before they depart their home countries.
Global Companies Get Too Much Credit for Their Transparency
Putting the 'S' in ESG: Measuring Human Rights Performance for Investors
In March 2017, the Center published Putting the 'S' in ESG: Measuring Human Rights Performance for Investors, an in-depth study of 12 leading frameworks for assessing companies’ social practices and impacts. It found that current measurement focuses on what is most convenient rather than most meaningful. Ninety-two percent of measures looked at company governance structures without any attempt to evaluate the effectiveness of those structures.
So Long for Now - Reflections on the Business and Human Rights Field
Investors Need Better Ways to Find Companies Making a Difference
Trump's Immigration Policies Threaten America's Prosperity and Identity
Report Reveals Gaps in Social Performance Metrics Needed By Investors to Identify Leading Companies
On International Women’s Day – Mentorship
March 8th is international women’s day. There’s a growing body of research affirming that women with strong mentors enjoy fast-track success at work. Ana Fels’ book is a great read on this subject, as is this Harvard Business Review about the role of men who champion women’s leadership. They both conclude that attaining equality in the work place will require those with the most power to use that power to elevate colleagues who don’t look like them.
Making Workers Pay: Recruitment of the Migrant Labor Force in the Gulf Construction Industry
In March 2017, the Center published, Making Workers Pay: Recruitment of the Migrant Labor Force in the Gulf Construction Industry. The report revealed that workers regularly pay thousands of dollars over the real costs of recruitment to secure jobs. It also identified the business practices, both in Gulf construction and in the recruitment industry, that lead to the charging of these fees. The current system requires many workers to incur heavy debt, leaving them vulnerable to other forms of exploitation once they arrive in the Gulf.
The World Economic Forum is Treating Fake News as an Urgent Matter of Global Human Rights
Press Conferences and Labor Statistics
At yesterday's White House press briefing, Scott Spicer equivocated when asked what the national employment rate is, asserting there are "several versions." It is not the first time the Bureau of Labor Statistics has been disputed - Francis Perkins took President Hoover on in 1932. Frances Perkins is a model for leadership when the stakes are high and facts are being used as political bait: deeply expert, politically bold, and unafraid to speak truth to power.
