Companies and Core Labour Standards: Issues in India

1
Companies and Core Labour StandardsIssues
in India

• United Nations Global Compact Society India
• New Delhi, 22 May 2009
• Coen Kompier, ILO New Delhi
• ckompier_at_ilo.org

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ILO Conventions

• Global Compact has 10 principles
• 4 deal with labour
• covered by 8 ILO fundamental conventions

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Fundamental Conventions their application in
India freedom of association

• C. 87 and C. 98
• Not ratified by India
• Public sector/Right to strike/Agriculture/
• Unorganized sector/Anti-union attitude
• traditional approach by unions/not independent

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Fundamental Conventions their application in
India child labour

• C. 138 and C. 182
• Not ratified by India ( reservation child labour
  article UN Convention on Rights of Children)
• Universal and free education/general minimum
  age/hazardous work at 14 years
• unorganized economy e.g. home-based
  work/agriculture e.g. cotton seed pollination
• (list is endless)
• 80 million children out of school/globally half
  of all undernourished children live in India

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Fundamental Conventions their application in
India discrimination

• C. 100 and C. 111
• Ratified by India
• Equal pay between men and women?
• Discrimination based on caste/adivasis/religion/
  women/disability/internal migration
• Private sector reservations?
• Contract labour

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Fundamental Conventions their application in
India forced labour

• C. 29 and C. 105
• Ratified by India
• Bonded labour and its shifting patterns
  sumangali system
• Trafficking for labour purposes

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Business case for standards

• Discrimination is ineffective allocation of human
  resources wrong person in wrong job
• Social dialogue mitigate retrenchment/invest
  with wisdom (TATA in Singur)
• Child labour perpetuates poverty
• Forced labour low productivity

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Corporate Social Responsibility

• Voluntary efforts going beyond requirements of
  law
• Must go beyond philanthropy
• Invest down the production chain
• The trade argument

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ndards/index.htm