Opinion
A New Approach to Improving Asia’s Labor Conditions
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The shared responsibility model offers an ambitious but practical way forward, allocating costs among various public and private actors. And it’s a model that has been successful elsewhere.
By Michael Posner
This week sees the beginning of the Christmas shopping season in the U.S., known as Black Friday. The era of fast fashion will bring great deals for consumers but too little consideration for the well-being of those who make the holiday bounty.
Make no mistake, these workers are happy to be employed. The globalized economy has generated scores of new jobs in places such as Cambodia, Honduras and Sri Lanka, particularly benefitting young women.
But with these significant benefits come daunting challenges: a rise in human trafficking, child labor and dangerous factories, among other serious human-rights concerns. Two years after the collapse of the Rana Plaza factory in Bangladesh that killed almost 1,200 workers and injured 2,500 others, scores of factories remain unsafe and existing responses aren’t solving a range of problems. Fresh thinking seems in short supply.
The World Economic Forum has taken up the challenge, proposing a bold new model to address these chronic, large-scale problems. It advocates shared responsibility, in which local and global businesses, governments, international financial organizations like the World Bank, unions and foundations join forces to address the most pressing human-rights challenges. Together, they would agree to focus on transparency, not the blame game.
Read the full article as published in the Wall Street Journal.
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Michael Posner is a Professor of Business and Society and Co-Director of the NYU Stern Center for Business and Human Rights.
Make no mistake, these workers are happy to be employed. The globalized economy has generated scores of new jobs in places such as Cambodia, Honduras and Sri Lanka, particularly benefitting young women.
But with these significant benefits come daunting challenges: a rise in human trafficking, child labor and dangerous factories, among other serious human-rights concerns. Two years after the collapse of the Rana Plaza factory in Bangladesh that killed almost 1,200 workers and injured 2,500 others, scores of factories remain unsafe and existing responses aren’t solving a range of problems. Fresh thinking seems in short supply.
The World Economic Forum has taken up the challenge, proposing a bold new model to address these chronic, large-scale problems. It advocates shared responsibility, in which local and global businesses, governments, international financial organizations like the World Bank, unions and foundations join forces to address the most pressing human-rights challenges. Together, they would agree to focus on transparency, not the blame game.
Read the full article as published in the Wall Street Journal.
___
Michael Posner is a Professor of Business and Society and Co-Director of the NYU Stern Center for Business and Human Rights.