{"id":9094,"date":"2022-12-02T11:05:49","date_gmt":"2022-12-02T10:05:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uniglobalunion.org\/?post_type=news&p=9094"},"modified":"2022-12-02T11:11:23","modified_gmt":"2022-12-02T10:11:23","slug":"uni-at-pri-investors-and-multinationals-have-a-responsibility-and-opportunity-to-respect-labour-rights","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/uniglobalunion.org\/news\/uni-at-pri-investors-and-multinationals-have-a-responsibility-and-opportunity-to-respect-labour-rights\/","title":{"rendered":"UNI at PRI: Investors and multinationals have a responsibility and opportunity to respect labour rights"},"content":{"rendered":"
During a plenary session at PRI in Person<\/a>, the world’s leading responsible investment conference being held this year in Barcelona, UNI Global Union\u2019s Senior Investor Engagement Advisor Lisa Nathan made a strong case for investors to promote labour rights in their owned companies from both a human rights and financial standpoint.<\/p>\r\n During the panel discussion, ‘Advancing investor action on human rights and social issues’, Nathan addressed key topics such as using the United Nations’ Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights<\/a> to identify, prevent and mitigate risks; building investor support for human rights due diligence; and addressing human rights and social issues systemically.<\/p>\r\n Investor action to secure freedom of association and collective bargaining is urgently needed, she argued, as workers\u2019 rights globally are in crisis<\/a>, with violations at a nine-year high. These breeches of labour rights not only drive conditions down for working people, but they also create regulatory<\/a>, operational and reputational risks<\/a> at companies like Amazon. Declining trade union density is correlated with increasing inequality as well as political and economic instability, creating systemic risks for our economy as a whole.<\/p>\r\n \u201cThe crisis we face regarding fundamental labour rights is particularly critical. Freedom of association and collective bargaining are enabling rights because when workers are empowered through being in a trade union, they can then protect their other human rights, such as health and safety and gender and racial equality,\u201d Nathan said.<\/p>\r\n \u201cThrough their stewardship, investors can create an enabling environment where workers are able to safeguard their own human rights, in turn mitigating a whole host of human rights and material risks. .\u00a0 .To do this well, investor and company engagement with workers and their trade unions is essential.\u201d<\/p>\r\n The PRI plenary comes just days after the Committee on Workers\u2019 Capital launched a global campaign<\/a> to elevate labour rights with investors. As part of the campaign kick-off, CWC released a guide for investors, ‘Shared Prosperity: The Investor Case for Freedom of Association and Collective<\/em><\/a>\u00a0<\/em>Bargaining<\/em><\/a>\u201d, which outlines investors\u2019 human rights responsibilities and argues respecting fundamental labour rights makes good, long-term financial sense, alongside providing a roadmap of practical investor action.<\/em><\/p>\r\n UNI Global Union is a participant in the CWC effort as a member of the Network Secretariat and co-author of the report.\u00a0<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" During a plenary session at PRI in Person, the world’s leading responsible investment conference being held this year in Barcelona, UNI Global Union\u2019s Senior Investor Engagement Advisor Lisa Nathan made a strong case for investors to promote labour rights in their owned companies from both a human rights and financial standpoint. During the panel discussion,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":9095,"template":"","categories":[41],"global-issues":[33],"sectors":[],"cross-sector-groups":[],"workers-rights":[],"regions":[],"topics":[],"class_list":["post-9094","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","global-issues-business-and-human-rights"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n