Canada's Largest Corporations Lack Codes of Conduct on Treatment of Workers Overseas

International Centre for Human Rights and Democratic Development

MONTREAL, May 14, 1997 --The majority of Canada's largest corporations operating abroad have not adopted codes of conduct dealing with basic human rights. And those who have generally do not have specific mechanisms in place to ensure their codes are respected.

These are the main conclusions of a study of 98 of Canada's largest corporations by the Canadian Lawyers' Association for International Human Rights, in collaboration with the International Centre for Human Rights and Democratic Development (ICHRDD). The study, released today, entitled Commerce with Conscience? Human Rights and Corporate Codes of Conduct, by Craig Forcese, evaluates the prevalence and content of codes of conduct of Canada's largest corporations operating internationally.

Some of the original findings of the study are:

• although 42% of the companies who responded to the survey agreed that international business has a role to play in promoting the protection of international human rights and sustainable development, only one in five companies of the total number surveyed reported having adopted a code of conduct for its international operations.
  
• only 14% of companies responding to the survey reported having codes of conduct which refer to all the core labour standards that are now recognized as basic human rights by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD): freedom of association and the right to collective bargaining, non-discrimination in the workplace, elimination of exploitative child labour, and the prohibition of forced labour. Although a total of six companies claimed to have codes dealing with core labour standards, only one company in fact supplied a code which contained reference to those rights!
  
• one third of the firms that have adopted codes of conduct refer to some part of the core labour standards as defined by the International Labour Organization (ILO) and OECD. If it is assumed that the 55 companies that did not respond to the survey do not have codes that refer to OECD standards, only 6 % of Canada's largest corporations have codes dealing with some of these rights.
  
• only 14% of companies with codes have some independent mechanism to ensure respect of its provisions.
  
• half of the firms responding to the survey reported that they apply more stringent environmental and labour standards when operating in countries where standards are less rigorous than Canadian norms.

The study would also seem to indicate that Canadian companies are reluctant to speak about their relations with workers abroad. Only 43 of the 98 companies solicited responded to the questionnaire or the telephone inquiries. Even more worrisome is the fact that even companies that report having codes of conduct are reluctant to share them with the public.

According to Forcese, the study suggests that "Canadian business places a very low priority on communicating its response to issues it confronts in its overseas operations to the non-governmental sector... A large number of firms expressed no... interest in the subject. When the companies do have codes, environmental protection and community relations received more attention than human rights issues. "Of the 21 firms that reported having international codes of conduct, only 11 offered employee training on their codes." Finally, only 6 of the 43 respondent firms, or 6 % of the total survey sample, reported having some sort of policy concerning their dealings with repressive regimes.

The study concludes that Canadian companies operating internationally, like their US counterparts, are now beginning to consider human rights issues in their international practices, a gratifying development. ICHRDD President Warren Allmand said "We hope this study will stimulate Canadian companies to adopt effective codes of conduct dealing with the fundamental rights of their workers everywhere in the world, including independent control mechanisms to ensure the codes are respected."

A second publication, to be released this fall, will cover in more detail the policy options that are available to workers, shareholders, NGOs, governments, business and interest groups to ensure that companies respect the rights of workers.

The survey of the 110 largest Canadian companies working abroad was done between June and October 1996. Of these, 12 corporations were discarded because they do not operate in the regions covered by the survey, 55 did not respond to the questionnaire and of the 43 that did respond, 21 accepted to complete the questionnaire.

Commerce with Conscience ? is available immediately from the International Centre for Human Rights and Democratic Development. Journalists who would like to interview the author or receive further information may contact the Centre.

For further information: Pierre Lebel, ICHRDD
Tel.: (514) 283-6073
Fax.: (514) 283-3792
E-mail: plichrdd@web.net