Word: labors
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Africa in Crisis The recent spate of xenophobic violence in South Africa [June 2] is shocking and embarrassing to witness. Apart from the official reasons given, the problem boils down to "have and have not." Many South Africans - those who have built a life with the fruits of their labor - have suffered heavy losses through violence and theft. The criminals are said to be opportunists and not necessarily part of an organized group, but the relative inefficiency with which the government dealt with the violence poses the question: How long before mobs turn on the middle and upper income groups...
...ecological responsibility, the fund insists, is key to safeguarding its own financial returns. Take children's rights. If children are denied schooling and forced to earn a living prematurely, they grow up to be less productive workers with fewer skills. While a current employer may benefit from their cheap labor, future employers will lose out. For Norway's fund, it's a concern - both ethically and economically - that "the action of one company may influence the profitability of another," says Yngve Slyngstad, CEO of Norges Bank Investment Management, the part of Norway's central bank that runs the fund...
...Slyngstad's team of 188, which includes 11 people focused solely on corporate governance issues, consciously leverages the fund's rights as a major shareholder. Last year, the fund contacted several companies in its portfolio with operations in India's agricultural sector, urging better controls on child labor. Similarly, talks are ongoing with firms in Brazil's mining and steel industries. The fund has also sent to the boards of about 30 firms a document it published with the help of UNICEF and Save the Children, setting out its expectations regarding children's rights...
...instance, it sold off stakes in Britain's BAE and Boeing for their part in the manufacture of nuclear weapons. The remaining firms put the fund at risk of contributing to serious breaches of human rights, or severe environmental damage. Citing "systematic" violations of human and labor rights in its business and its supplier chain, the Ministry excluded Wal-Mart from the fund in May 2006. (The retailer said the claims were based on inaccurate and outdated information.) Such exclusions are "in one sense, an admission of defeat of the corporate governance effort," says Slyngstad. "When you're no longer...
...raise livestock outside their homes. One former resident of the now-demolished village says his family lost valuable cropland and the payment offered by the government is not enough to compensate. Job growth due to hydropower work is unlikely, the resident says, because the dam builders rely on outside labor. "Building this dam is good for the local government because of the tax revenue they can get off the electricity," says the resident, who asked to not be named because of the sensitivity of the issue. "But the local people will just come to grief...