Word: laboral
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...ways that you would not be comfortable with?" asks Slyngstad. "Yes, of course." But his team, which is spread between Oslo, London, Shanghai and New York City, tries to use its heft strategically - for example, to pressure firms in a sector like Brazilian mining, in which exploitation of child labor persists. Nor will the environmentally unfriendly origins of the fund's cash prevent it from pressing for better ecological standards. Last year, for instance, the fund voted in favor of a shareholder push for U.S. oil major ExxonMobil to adopt emission-reduction goals. Hardly the actions of a rapacious villain...
...Western multinationals have been trying for years, with mixed success, to stamp out such scenes. In the 1990s, a series of scandals showed the damage that could be wrought if a brand was linked to shoddy labor practices overseas. For example, in 1996, it was alleged that a Wal-Mart clothes label endorsed by American TV personality Kathie Lee Gifford had been produced using child labor in Honduran sweatshops. Gifford sobbed on air, saying she hadn't been aware of conditions at the factory. For corporations and consumers alike, it brought home the realization that globalized production comes...
...face. Auditing came into vogue at the same time that Western firms were pushing harder than ever for lower prices and faster turnarounds. From the mid-1990s onwards, "many multinationals were telling factories, 'Give me this cheaply, give me this quickly - and, by the way, comply with your local labor law, or our code of conduct, whichever is higher,'" says Ayesha Khan, a manager with BSR, a CSR consultancy...
...fierce, and their profit margins have shrunk. There's a glut of Chinese and Indian factories competing for Western clients, so if a factory doesn't pass audits, multinationals can just walk across the street. With the Chinese workweek capped at about 50 hours (including overtime), strict new labor laws and growing competition for workers, it's getting tougher to comply with the law, pay the minimum wage, make order deadlines - and earn a profit. Says Rosey Hurst, founder of Impactt, an ethical trade NGO based in London: "I have a large deal of sympathy for the fakers...
...safety codes, staffed by migrant workers who often put in 12-hour days seven days a week, these shadow factories are unregulated, but common. The craze for auditing has, paradoxically, led factory owners to create such factories. It also sops up resources that could be channeled toward improving labor conditions. "If factories are getting monitored on average 25 times a year, that's every two weeks you have to check your records and talk to workers," says Michael Kobori, head of supply chain social and environmental sustainability at U.S. garment manufacturer Levi Strauss. "It's no wonder management...