Shell
Brasil takes action in the fight against child labour
Paris, 2
December 1999 - While
the argument rages at the World Trade Organization conference in Seattle about
links between labour standards and trade, multinational companies are taking
practical steps to raise those standards in countries where they do business.
One issue related to basic
human rights that arouses great public concern is child labour. On ICC's Global
Compact website, we shall be reporting on what major corporations are doing
to make sure that suppliers and contractors do not resort to employing children.
The problem is immensely
complex, and solutions are neither immediate nor easy in regions where families
are so poor that children below the minimum legal age have to work for them
to survive. One reason why international companies resist the practice is because
they see it as depriving children of the right to education and development
in the future, and thus perpetuates the poverty cycle.
Our first case studies get
down to specifics. Take the example provided by Shell Brasil on the plight of
children in that country who have to work in the sugar cane fields. Alcohol
distilled from sugar is added to gasoline in Brazil under laws designed to reduce
the country's dependence on import
ed oil.
Shell Brasil has introduced
a clause in its contracts with distilleries forbidding the suppliers from using
child labour. Already the clause has been introduced in contracts with 39 distilleries,
and the company's target is to cover all its suppliers by the end of the year.
Levi Strauss refuses partners
who use child labour in any of their facilities. The company supports the development
of legitimate workplace apprenticeship programmes for the educational benefit
of younger people.
The company reports that
when underage girls were found working in two contrators' facilities in Bangladesh,
they came up with an innovative solution: the contractors agreed to stop employing
underage workers and to continue paying a salary to the girls provided they
attended school. Levi Strauss paid for tuition, books and school uniforms.
On its website, Reebok gives
this pledge: "We guarantee that no child labour is used in the production of
Reebok soccer balls and have committed $1 million for the eduational and vocational
needs of former child workers in Pakistan's soccer industry." Reebok's policy
is that it will not work with business partners that use child labour.
Many companies are actively
engaged in collective actions to give children a better life. Major corporations,
development banks, bilateral aid agencies and private foundations have formed
a global partnership to improve conditions and prospects of children and youth
worldwide.
The International
Youth Foundation is providing secretariat services for the partnership,
working with the World Bank Group and the Kellogg Company.
Business partners in the
initiative include: American Express, Ayala Corporation, Cisco Systems, Financial
Times, Hill & Knowlton, Iridium LLC, Microsoft, Nike, Petroleos de Venezuela,
Shell International and Visteon Automotive Group.
Global
Compact pages