Whereas many situations regarding the morality of the MNC's presence or activi tie in a country are quite clear, other situations are not, especially when dealing ice, with human rights. The role of MNCs in pulling out of South Africa in the 1980s as On part of the movement against apartheid has now played out and many cautiously return to the now multiracial democracy. In many other areas of the world, the in question of what role MNCs should play regarding human rights is at the fore front. So loud has been the cry about products coming from sweatshops around the world that President Clinton established an Anti-Sweatshop Code of Conduct which includes a ban on forced labor, abuse and discrimination, and requires corn panie to provide a healthy and safe work environment and to pay at least the pre an vailing local minimum wage, among other requirements. A group has been named to monitor compliance; enforcement is difficult, of course, but publicity helps! The Department of Labor publishes the names of companies who comply with the code, including Nike, Reebok, Liz Claiborne, Wal-Mart, and Phillips-Van Heusen. Those companies can be identified on the department's home page Website (http://www.gov./nosweat.htm). Even so, in a study commissioned by Nike in 2000 to review personnel activities at its contractors in Indonesia, it was found that
56 percent of the 4,004 workers told researchers that they had witnessed supervisors verbally, sexually, or physically abusing other employees. WALL STREET JOURNAL, FEBRUARY 22, 2001
The study, by nonprofit Global Alliance, concludes that workers at the Indonesian factories contracted by Nike had limited access to medical care, were exposed to sexual molestation by managers, and were often forced to work overtime.
What constitutes human rights is clouded by the perceptions and priorities of people in different countries. While the United States often takes the lead in the charge against what they consider human rights violations around the world, other countries point to the homelessness and high crime statistics in the United States. Often the discussion of human rights centers around Asia, because many
of the products in the West are imported from there by western companies using manufacturing facilities located there.'5 It is commonly held in the West that the - best chance to gain some ground on human rights issues is for large MNCs and governments around the world to take a unified stance; many global players now question the morality of trading for goods that have been produced by forced labor or child labor. Though laws in the United States ban prison imports, shady deals between the manufacturers and companies acting as intermediaries make as it difficult to determine the origin of many products-and make it easy for corn panie wanting access to cheap products or materials to ignore the law. However, under pressure from their labor unions (and, perhaps, their conscience), a num be of large image-conscious companies have established corporate codes of con for their buyers, suppliers, and contractors and have instituted strict proce dure for auditing their imports.'6 Reebok has audited all its suppliers in Asia.
Levi Strauss has gone a step further. After sending teams of investigators around the world, Levi announced a new company policy: We should not initiate or renew contractual relationships in countries where there are pervasive violations of basic human rights.17 In fact, after that study, Levi withdrew its contracts in China and Burma, citing pervasive violation of human rights and continuing labor inequities. Of course, the company was also concerned that its brand image would suffer and that customers would not want to buy a shirt made by children in Bangladesh or by forced labor in China. Levi's top managers concluded that decisions focusing only on cost factors undermine the long-term interests of the company. They feel that more benefits accrue from an ethical approach, such as loyalty among its employees, partners, suppliers and customers. Levi has adopted strict guidelines for its foreign contractors, such as:
Suppliers must provide safe and healthy conditions that meet Levi's standards.
Suppliers must pay workers no less than prevailing local wages.
Company inspectors will make surprise visits to contractors to ensure compliance.'8
MNC Responsibility Toward Human Rights : Economic article from Global Management Catagory MNC Responsibility Toward Human Rights
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