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	We have to admit that exploitation is embedded in our economic systems by Grazia Giammarinaro UN Office for Human Rights, agencies   Nov. 2019   We have to admit that exploitation is embedded in our economic systems. (Reuters)   A failure to hold companies to account for lesser labour abuses from late wage payments to excessive overtime creates a breeding ground for the worst forms of modern slavery to thrive, the top United Nations expert on human trafficking said.   Businesses are judged only on their efforts to curb extreme forms of labour exploitation, leaving more common abuses unchecked and likely to lead to even poorer working conditions, according to U.N. special rapporteur Maria Grazia Giammarinaro.   Minor labour abuses are so widespread that workers often do not realise they are being exploited, or are reluctant to speak out for fear of backlash - from being fired to deported in the case of undocumented migrants - the Italian judge said.   "Exploitation, and therefore trafficking, begins with the enabling of a breeding ground for the disregard of fundamental labour rights," she said in a report presented to the U.N. last week, in which she referred to a "continuum of exploitation".   To identify the worst forms of labour abuse in global supply chains, addressing broader areas of exploitation is essential, Giammarinaro told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.   Yet the traditional law enforcement approach is ineffective, she said, calling for workers to be able to report abuses using other avenues and supported to obtain compensation if exploited.   "The identified cases are very few," she said. "We have to explore further different avenues to make trafficking cases emerge. I think trafficking should seen by governments not as criminal issue, primarily, but as a social issue.".. "But we are not there," Giammarinaro added. "Not at all."   At least 25 million people worldwide are estimated to be victims of forced labour, while about 25,000 human trafficking cases were recorded globally in 2016 - marking a 13-year-high - according to the latest available data from two U.N. agencies.   The U.N. expert said there were concerns about firms focusing on extreme forms of exploitation instead of issues such as trade unionisation.   The number of informal workers globally is set to swell as low-skilled labourers lose out to automation and others take short-term jobs offered through digital platforms, say labour activists who warn of the increased risk of modern slavery.   Two billion people - more than 60% of the world's workers - are in informal employment, where they are not covered by formal arrangements, such as a contract, or lack protections including sick pay, U.N. International Labour Organization data shows.   "We have to admit that exploitation is embedded in our economic systems," Giammarinaro said. "This is something that's changed, the perception about trafficking and forced labour... They were perceived as marginal ... mostly linked with criminal activity," she added. "It is actually a sort of parallel labour market which exists everywhere." http://tmsnrt.rs/2NbdRTW   Oct. 2019 (OHCHR)   Companies need to create grievance mechanisms that enable workers to report trafficking or severe exploitation without risking losing their jobs or residence status, a UN human rights expert has said.   'Workers who are victims of trafficking or severe exploitation currently face numerous challenges hampering their access to judicial and non-judicial grievance mechanisms', said Special Rapporteur Maria Grazia Giammarinaro, presenting a full report on the issue to the General Assembly.   'In most cases, workers are mainly concerned about recovering unpaid wages, maintaining their contracts and improving their workplace conditions. However, resorting to grievance mechanisms frequently results in them losing their jobs and facing uncertainty over recovering their wages and other payments.   Migrant workers face additional concerns, such as the fear of being deported, which prevents them from making complaints to the authorities. This is a particular issue when they have faced repeated threats from their employers that their visa, work permit or residence depends on their contract with that employer.   This is also a consequence of current restrictive migration policies in many States, where undocumented migrants are removed promptly without allowing time for an initial assessment aimed at identifying potential victims of trafficking'.   The Special Rapporteur called on companies to act now. 'Businesses need to establish procedures aimed at enabling workers, including workers in their supply chains, to acquire access to grievance mechanisms and report exploitation without fear of being deported or losing their jobs', Giammarinaro said.   'If workers are found to be in exploitative situations, or have reported exploitation, these mechanisms should also provide them with viable solutions throughout the supply chains, such as a subcontractor having to improve working conditions, or the parent company having to provide workers with reparations and alternative employment opportunities if the contract has been terminated. The systems should also include provisions for residence status when needed, in cooperation with host governments.   I urge companies to engage with workers and their representatives to develop grievance mechanisms based on cooperation between public institutions, businesses and social actors.   Grievance mechanisms and other internal redress mechanisms should be easily accessible to workers and be based on trust. This trust can be achieved only when workers and workers representatives are centrally involved in the design, implementation and monitoring of remediation tools. In short, these mechanisms can be successful only if the voices of workers are included.   It is now necessary to go beyond minimal reporting obligations and require a higher level of commitment from companies', she said. http://undocs.org/A/74/189   Oct. 2019   Governments must 'walk the talk' and lead by example to end human rights abuses by businesses, say UN experts   Governments must go beyond policy declarations and take concrete policy and regulatory measures across government if they are to prevent and address the impact of human rights abuses by businesses, a group of UN human rights experts has said.   In a new report to the UN General Assembly, the Working Group on Business and Human Rights proposes a range of measures in the field of policy coherence and roll-out of national commitments, to help governments promote effective implementation of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.   'States must move their policy measures from paper to practice', said Elzbieta Karska, who chairs the group.   'It's time for each State to make sure that government policy on business and human rights is understood and implemented across all government departments, and is put into practice in all their engagements with businesses. This requires a high degree of policy coherence and concrete action, which is rarely evident in practice.   Our report highlights the positive impact that such steps can have to address the serious and widespread impacts on human rights that are currently being caused by businesses. The people bearing the heaviest brunt include women and girls, low-paid and migrant workers, human rights defenders and indigenous peoples'.   She added: 'It is encouraging to see that some States have developed national action plans and made other positive progress. But if these policies are not embedded into working practices right across government, they risk becoming a box-ticking exercise and a pretext for inaction'.   The experts said there were compelling reasons for governments to act, not least their legal obligation to protect individuals and communities from human rights abuses, including those inflicted by business actors and activities. They said urgent progress was needed in policy coherence and regulatory action and the effective roll-out of national commitments.   A member of the group, Dante Pesce, who presented the report to the General Assembly said: 'Governments themselves have an important economic role, they are large-scale buyers of goods and services, as well as influential owners, investors and trade promoters. They should be leading by example and ensuring their own full compliance with human rights regulations and policies if they expect others to do the same'.   'As our report makes clear, policy coherence is also positive for businesses, which benefit from a clear assertion of what the government expects of them in their domestic and overseas operations. This provides predictability and credibility across the whole of government'.   The report offers guidance on how States can generate the highest level of political support, meaningful participation by all government entities and key stakeholders, including businessesand adequate funding, training and information management in the field of business and human rights.   It also highlights the strong link between human rights in business and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, urging States to integrate planning to maximise their chances of delivering both.   'States are less likely to meet the targets set by the 2030 Agenda and its commitment to leave no one behind, if they fail to pay full attention to policy and regulations on business and human rights', Pesce said. http://undocs.org/en/A/74/198
	World Bank discontinues problematic Doing Business report by Eurodad, Oxfam, ITUC, agencies   Sep. 2021   The World Bank Group has issued a statement announcing the discontinuation of its Doing Business report.   Nadia Daar, Head of Oxfam International’s Washington DC Office:   “It's a welcome move and about time the World Bank scrapped its Doing Business report, a global competitiveness index that encouraged governments to adopt destructive policies that worsen inequality, like slashing labor regulations and corporate taxes. For nearly two decades governments vying to improve their spot on the Bank’s flagship ranking have put the interests of corporations before communities and the environment.   "The report is a stain on the Bank’s reputation as an institution mandated to reduce poverty and inequality. After allegations of data tampering and years of pushing for reform to the report’s methodology, which is outdated and riddled with problems, civil society organizations earlier this year called for its discontinuation. Today we celebrate that win.   “As the Bank looks to develop a new way to assess countries’ business and investment climate, it is crucial that it consult widely with stakeholders including civil society. It must learn from its mistakes and take a holistic approach that includes environmental and social protections, labor rights and fair taxation. Otherwise, it will continue to cause huge damage in countries it claims to help.”   http://www.oxfam.org/en/press-releases/world-bank-discontinues-problematic-doing-business-report-oxfam-reaction http://www.eurodad.org/rights_not_rankings http://www.eurodad.org/eurodad_reaction_to_the_world_banks_doing_business_report_scandal http://www.ipsnews.net/2021/09/end-world-banks-business-report-landmark-victory-people-planet/   Nov. 2019   World Bank rankings promote deregulation at the expense of Working People, by Leo Baunach. (ITUC)   Through its annual Doing Business rankings, the World Bank promotes blindly deregulatory measures, including a race to the bottom on taxes and fewer protections for workers.   In the recently released 2020 edition, countries get high marks if they demonstrate a commitment to slashing regulations rather than policies that support sustainable development, poverty elimination, and inequality reduction. Both the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund have used the report's indicators to pressure countries to reduce regulations, sometimes through loan conditions.   Doing Business has long been dogged by controversy. In 2018, World Bank chief economist Paul Romer sharply criticized the report, noting that methodological changes - not reforms - had led to dramatic swings in Chile's ranking. Romer speculated that staff could have manipulated the rankings for political purposes, an overreach that distracted from his valid criticisms of the methodology.   As the Center for Global Development pointed out, Doing Business does not require political manipulation because the index starts from an extreme ideological premise. The creation of Doing Business in the early 2000s drew inspiration from the right-wing Heritage Foundation's Index of Economic Freedom.   For decades, Chile pursued the neoliberal policies championed by Doing Business and the World Bank. Under dictator Augusto Pinochet, Chile privatized its pension system. The Bank held up Chile as a model and promoted pension privatization across the world, an experiment that ended in failure.   In Chile, the pension system is in crisis, wages are low, jobs are insecure, and public services including water are privatized. In recent weeks a mass movement has risen up to demand a new model that benefits everyone.   Nonetheless, supply-side ideology may have gained new life at the World Bank. President David Malpass, selected this year by the Trump administration, described how financial deregulation in Kenya enabled an explosion of short-term microloans via mobile phones.   'It's the kind of liberalization process we need to unleash across the developing world', Malpass said. This deregulation gave Kenya a significant boost in its Doing Business score from the 'Getting Credit' indicator, where it ranks 4th globally.   While the Bank hypes mobile lending as a tool for entrepreneurship and development, there is a much darker side. Mobile lenders in Kenya aggressively market high-interest loans that trap people in unaffordable debt. These loans are not fueling business or investment either: only 10 percent of mobile borrowers in Kenya used a loan for that purpose. Most borrowers use loans for consumption, medical needs, and school fees.   Bridge Academies, which received funding from the World Bank's private sector lending arm, is among the sources of school fees in Kenya. The World Bank Group is under pressure to divest from Bridge, which has been scrutinized for evading regulations on education standards and providing untrained teachers with poor working conditions.   In Kenya and around the world, the solution is not predatory finance and private education. People need quality jobs with living wages, a goal that Doing Business undermines.   The World Bank suspended the Employing Workers Indicator (originally Hiring and Firing Workers) from the ranking calculations in 2009, after criticism that it degraded labor standards. However, Doing Business continues to gather the data, and the 2020 report devotes a chapter to the subject.   Countries are lauded for 'making employment regulation more business-friendly' through flexibility measures including higher caps on overtime hours, reducing extra pay for working at night or on rest days, longer probationary periods before workers become permanent, and expanding the allowability of temporary and fixed-term employment relationships.   Doing Business justifies these flexibility measures in the name of letting workers 'choose their jobs and working hours more freely'. Workers do need a genuine measure of control over their time and input in scheduling, especially to balance care responsibilities. This can be achieved through negotiations between employers, trade unions, and governments to balance the needs of everyone.   The ILO Global Commission on the Future of Work highlighted the need to address both insecure under-employment and excessive hours. The Commission recommended 'the adoption of appropriate regulatory measures that provide workers with a guaranteed and predictable minimum number of hours and actions to ensure that on-call work is dignified and the choice for greater flexibility is a real one'. They suggest additional pay for work that is not guaranteed and compensation for the waiting time of on-call workers.   The changes promoted by Doing Business give employers even more power, allowing them to threaten non-renewal of employment contracts and keep workers insecure with unpredictable scheduling.   Doing Business 2020 states that Serbian authorities could benefit from the experience of Hungary where employers have the freedom to use fixed-term contracts of up to five years for tasks of a permanent nature. The interest here is only in the 'freedom' of business to do whatever it pleases, without considering the effect on working people.   Another justification is that flexibility will improve the ability of women and youth to participate in the workforce. The citation for one such claim is a decade-old study from Simeon Djankov, a central figure in the founding and survival of Doing Business. Evidence from the real world contradicts these claims.   In reviewing the effects of labour market flexibility measures in Europe, researchers found no support for the notion that lowering restrictions on the use of temporary employment relations can help reduce youth unemployment.   The discredited Employing Workers Indicator recently made an appearance in a World Bank white paper on social protection. It is no surprise that the indicator is used in a paper that calls for fewer labor regulations and a social protection system built around individual savings, reduced employer contributions, and narrowly targeted social safety nets. A full analysis of the World Bank's proposals on social protection and labour is available here: http://bit.ly/2oQYlmZ   In India, trade unions will hold a nationwide general strike in January 2020 to oppose the policies of Prime Minister Modi, including the reduction of employer contributions to pension funds and social insurance. India has aggressively pursued higher rankings in Doing Business, lobbying the Bank for favourable methodology changes and letting the pursuit of a higher ranking guide policy-making.   'The Government boasts that India's ranking is going up', the Indian unions note. However, 'All this is being done at the expense of the working people'.   * Leo Baunach is the Director of the International Trade Union Confederation and Global Unions Office in Washington: http://inequality.org/research/world-bank-deregulation/ http://inequality.org/research/austerity-wave-undercuts-global-goals-on-poverty-and-inequality/ http://bit.ly/31balwG http://bit.ly/2MZpI6k http://bit.ly/2VEkAs1 http://actionaid.org/stories/2019/world-bank-and-imf-mark-75th-anniversary-amid-rising-global-hunger-climate-crisis-and http://unctad.org/en/PublicationsLibrary/gp_ggnd_2019_en.pdf http://www.socialeurope.eu/world-economic-forum-towards-sustainability-with-neoliberal-recipes Visit the related web page
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