From poverty to power - Oxfam-Québec

FROM POVERTY TO POWERrather than discourage respect for rights.Properly funding and equippinglabour inspectorates to enforce the law, and ensuring that labourlegislation keeps up with the changing workplace, are two essentialsteps. In Central America, for example, women workers’organisationshave criticised occupational health and safety laws based on risks inconstruction and agriculture – traditionally men’s jobs – that fail torecognise conditions such as repetitive strain injuries,which are commonto women’s jobs in factories and households. Labour legislation mayalso discriminate against women where only workers in full-time,permanent employment gain access to employment benefits.The private sector, too, must rise to the challenge of social responsibility.Industries that are physically constrained from moving theircapital around, that are making longer-term investments due to otherfactors such as market size,or that depend on good community relationsare most likely to champion more responsible practices. Supermarkets,for example, seeking a ‘licence to operate’ in large developing countriesmay be more amenable to pressure to respect freedom of associationor collective bargaining (even mighty Wal-Mart backed down over theChinese government’s insistence that it recognise trade unions in its60 Chinese supermarkets 127 ).Many global supply chain practices result in precarious conditionsfor workers – and these are precisely the ones considered by businessesto provide an edge in highly competitive markets. In the words of oneSouth African fruit marketing agent,‘Margins are so tight, we’ve got tosurvive and thus cut and restructure labour. You can’t turn a packhouseon and off, you can’t turn tractors on and off, you can’t turntrees on and off, but you can turn people on and off.’ 128 Oxfam’sresearch has documented pressures and incentives for company buyersto boost sales and profit margins, ignoring unethical practices andeven abuses of labour standards. 129 Ethical purchasing managersstruggle against common beliefs that promoting decent jobs andlabour rights is uncompetitive, and can end up being sidelined,especially in a business downturn.To change such practices will require a co-ordinated effort acrossthe globe. Activists have galvanised consumer pressure in wealthycountries to get some big brands to move. Driven by public outcryover poor labour conditions in some supply chains,‘multi-stakeholder164