More multinationals have broken ranks with their industry associations
by backing Chinese labour law reforms largely opposed by the
associations.
Several companies, including Ericsson, General Electric and Procter
& Gamble, distanced themselves last month from the positions taken
by the American Chamber of Commerce, the European Chamber of Commerce
and the US-China Business Council, whose views of Chinese government
plans for progressive labour standard reforms have been generally
negative.
The companies’ statements follow the lead of Nike, which publicly
criticized the US chamber’s views on the law reforms amid suggestions
that industry associations are becoming out of step with their members
on corporate responsibility issues (EP8, issue 9, p3).
Ericsson said it ‘supports the Chinese government’s legislative
efforts’ and is ‘in no way actively lobbying against the proposed
legislation’. It added that ‘just because we are a member of the
European Chamber of Commerce does not necessarily mean we endorse every
lobbying initiative.’ Chinese employees would ‘benefit considerably if
current legislation were more actively enforced’, it said.
General Electric said it broadly supported the Chinese proposals and
pointed out that it had made its own comments on the draft law ‘in a
constructive and supportive manner’. Procter & Gamble endorsed
‘most’ parts of the draft law, and Peugeot Citroën said it was
‘unequivocally in favour’ but would seek some technical amendments.
The companies have posted their views at the Business and Human Rights
Resource Centre, an online facility supported by Amnesty International
and several academic bodies. The site’s administrators have invited
companies to submit statements on the issue.
Not all companies have followed Nike. AT&T, Carrefour, DuPont,
Maersk, Microsoft, Total, UPS and Wal-Mart are among those to have
declined to give a response. Walt Disney and Google have both posted
statements that are essentially non-committal.
