Complements or Substitutes? Private Codes, State Regulation and the Enforcement of Labour Standards in Global Supply Chains

2012 ◽  
Vol 51 (3) ◽  
pp. 519-552 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard M. Locke ◽  
Ben A. Rissing ◽  
Timea Pal
Keyword(s):  
Supply Chains ◽  
State Regulation ◽  
Global Supply Chains ◽  
Labour Standards

scholarly journals Mind the gap: Grass roots ‘brokering’ to improve labour standards in global supply chains

2017 ◽  
Vol 71 (4) ◽  
pp. 584-609 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah J Kaine ◽  
Emmanuel Josserand
Keyword(s):  
Supply Chain ◽  
Supply Chains ◽  
Working Conditions ◽  
Global Supply Chains ◽  
Significant Shift ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Whistle Blowing ◽  
Grass Roots ◽  
Labour Standards ◽  
Implementation Gaps

While governance and regulation are a first step in addressing worsening working conditions in global supply chains, improving implementation is also key to reversing this trend. In this article, after examining the nature of the existing governance and implementation gaps in labour standards in global supply chains, we explore how Viet Labor, an emerging grass-roots organization, has developed practices to help close them. This involves playing brokering roles between different workers and between workers and existing governance mechanisms. We identify an initial typology of six such roles: educating, organizing, supporting, collective action, whistle-blowing and documenting. This marks a significant shift in the way action to improve labour standards along the supply chain is analysed. Our case explores how predominantly top-down approaches can be supplemented by bottom-up ones centred on workers’ agency.

scholarly journals The domestic politics of corporate accountability legislation: struggles over the 2015 UK Modern Slavery Act

2017 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 709-743 ◽  
Author(s):  
Genevieve LeBaron ◽  
Andreas Rühmkorf
Keyword(s):  
Supply Chains ◽  
Domestic Politics ◽  
Civil Society Organizations ◽  
Global Supply Chains ◽  
Transnational Governance ◽  
Corporate Accountability ◽  
Regulatory Processes ◽  
Modern Slavery ◽  
Domestic Legislation ◽  
Labour Standards

AbstractOver the last decade, the norm of corporate accountability for labour standards in global supply chains has become increasingly prominent within the transnational governance arena. As global governance initiatives to spur due diligence for labour standards and combat exploitation in global supply chains—especially its most severe forms frequently described as modern slavery—have proliferated, societal coalitions have pressured states to pass domestic legislation to the same effect. In this article, we examine the regulatory processes that spurred the passage of one piece of anti-slavery legislation, the UK’s 2015 Modern Slavery Act. Our findings corroborate a number of established expectations regarding business opposition towards new legislation to raise public labour standards, but also provide a clearer picture of the mechanisms through which industry actors impact policymaking processes. Paradoxically, such mechanisms include business actors’ championing of weak regulatory initiatives, CSR activity and partnering with civil society organizations. Understanding industry actors’ use of these strategies improves our understanding of how transnational norms of corporate accountability and anti-slavery are being contested and shaped at domestic scales.

scholarly journals Extraterritoriality and public procurement regulation in the context of global supply chains’ governance

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Anna Corvaglia ◽  
Kevin Li
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Supply Chains ◽  
World Trade Organization ◽  
World Trade ◽  
Public Procurement ◽  
Global Supply Chains ◽  
Multilateral Trade ◽  
The World ◽  
Labour Standards ◽  
Domestic Regulation

With the globalisation of supply chains, the respect for human rights and labour standards in procurement practices has become a crucial priority also in the domestic regulation of public procurement. This paper focuses on two specific characteristics of the use of public procurement regulation for the enforcement of human rights and labour standards: its extraterritorial effects on companies and firms across different jurisdictions and its reliance on private certifications and labels. Both of these new aspects are evident within the new 2014 EU Procurement Directives, which includes a number of far-reaching regulatory features that facilitate the monitoring of the respect for human rights and labour standards of contractors and subcontractors across borders. However, this new dimension of public procurement has the potential to create tension within the framework of multilateral trade governance, specifically, the World Trade Organization (WTO) trade regime.

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