"Labour, Globalisation and The New Economy" - rldwl

Workshop 6 - Transnational Social Regulation
Chairman: Volker Telljohann
Existing international economic and social rules and structures are unbalanced at global level. Global market
governance has developed more quickly than global social governance. The interface between globalisation,
trade and social development is indeed complex and represents a challenge for a policy of sustainable
development. According to the European Commission, improving social governance and promoting core
labour standards in the context of globalisation and trade liberalisation requires a comprehensive approach.
Over the past 10 years there have been a number of important international developments in the field of
labour rights, labour standards and corporate social responsibility as, for example, the ILO Declaration on
Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work and the OECD Guidelines on Conduct for Multinationals.
Furthermore, there are a growing number of enterprises developing initiatives on a voluntary basis in the
field of social responsibility, core labour standards and global workers' rights at corporate level. Although
these global agreements represent an important step for trade unions the main problem regards the issue of
compliance. In several agreements we can find provisions regarding the possibility of site inspections in
order to establish a true picture of compliance. It also seems very difficult to ensure that group suppliers
adhere to the terms of the agreements.
As for the European level, the European Commission has issued a Green Paper on promoting a European
framework for corporate social responsibility regarding not only corporate codes of conduct on social rights
but also responsible actions during corporate restructuring. There are indeed a number of studies arguing that
the majority of mergers and acquisitions do not achieve the goal of cutting costs, increasing productivity and
improving quality, as many of these restructuring processes are carried out in such a way as to damage
employees' creativity and productivity. The Green Paper therefore stresses that responsible restructuring
processes have to include the involvement and participation of the workers affected, by means of information
and consultation, the safeguarding of employees' rights and vocational retraining, wherever necessary.
In this context the European social and economic policies, and in particular the European information and
consultation rights, are thought of as a means of improving the internal cohesion of companies operating on a
European scale by the creation of social dialogue focused on the key issues of economic, political and social
development impacting on the company's strategic decisions, their implementation and their consequences
for employees.
The workshop, therefore, will focus on global social governance as well as on corporate social responsibility
at the European level and the relationship between these two levels.
First of all, however, the workshop will have to examine more generally the dimensions of corporate social
responsibility and the implications of this concept at company, local, national, European and worldwide levels.
With regard to the global level, Workshop VI will address the following questions:
1. What is the role of international conventions and global company agreements for transnational social
regulation? Can they really contribute to improving labour rights and labour standards? Do they have an
impact on the competitiveness of less developed States? How can instruments such as Conventions and
Recommendations be more effectively used? Is it possible to interlink the various Conventions and
Recommendations? Where do we meet with resistance to international Conventions and how can this
resistance be overcome?
2. How can the scope and contents of international conventions and global company agreements be
described? Are they limited to the corporate level or do they also include suppliers?
3. What is their impact on the various levels of industrial relations? What are the implementation problems
for global company agreements? How can effective co-operation between social parties at centralised
and decentralised levels be guaranteed? How can EWCs contribute to establishing minimum standards
within transnational groups at global level?
4. Who are the actors at international level? What parties are involved in global agreements? How can trade
union co-operation at international level be deepened? What can the role of European Works Councils be
with regard to creating global networks of employee representatives?
14 - 14 May 2002