News

‘The business of business is business’ was how Milton Friedman once described the role of business. In his address to a conference on business and human rights hosted by Vigeo and the ILO in Paris, the UNI General Secretary, Philip Jennings said it was time to change such fundamentalist thinking by ‘changing the rules of the game.’



The adoption this year by the UN Human Rights Council of a report by John Ruggie on human rights and business could be that ‘game changer’, Jennings said.



The ‘Ruggie Principles’ of Protect, Respect and Remedy have moved the human rights’ agenda in a new direction.



The Principles place an obligation on business to respect human rights and even more a responsibility to act with due diligence to identify, prevent, mitigate and account for the impact of their business on human rights.



The Ruggie Principles say that companies must make an assessment of actual and potential human rights’ impacts, carried out as part of systematic risk management exercise; the exercise to draw on relevant stakeholders and to build collaboration with them.



UNI Global Union, said Jennings, will now seek to implement these Principles through its work to negotiate global framework agreements.



Global framework agreements, of which UNI has signed more than 40, are in alignment with the aim of the Ruggie Principles. They provide a further impetus, along with the improved OECD Guidelines on Multinationals, which also include due diligence exercises.



Jennings added that he hoped that the upcoming G-20 meeting of labour ministers in Paris next week will support these ‘on the ground initiatives’ to build respect for human rights. He called for the ILO to up its game in building corporate social responsibility. The ILO Tripartite Declaration was groundbreaking when it was agreed over 30 years ago but must now be made an integral part of business planning.





Upcoming G-20 Labour Ministers’ Summit



The French labour minister addressed the conference and underlined the commitment of the Sarkozy presidency to promote a jobs’ and rights’ agenda at the G-20. He confirmed they were working on four pillars – job creation, building a social protection floor, promotion of the core labour standards of the ILO and social cohesion. He wanted all G-20 nations to ratify the core conventions, particularly 87 and 98 on freedom of association and collective bargaining. He welcomed the convening of a Labour Conference, the ‘L-20’, which will take place at the G-20 Cannes Summit. He called for more movement on the ground by business and unions to build dialogue, citing the examples of French companies who have signed global agreements. (UNI has agreements with Carrefour and France Télécom). It was time for the ILO to have a much stronger status and role in the G-20 process, he concluded.



Jennings will participate in the union delegation to the G-20 labour ministers’ summit. In his remarks, Jennings said that it was important that the G-20 hosts did not lose their ambitions as the negotiations intensified. He welcomed the important work of Vigeo and its leader, Nicole Notat, to evaluate and valorise the social performance of business. ‘This morning Crédit Agricole and Société Générale had their credit downgraded by the big ratings’ agencies; one day the evaluation of social performance by Vigeo will also shake markets,’ he predicted.