The Role of Business in Preventing Labor and Human Rights Abuses
The UN Guiding Principles On Business and Human Rights, which were unanimously endorsed by the UN Human
Rights Council 2011, make clear both the duty of states and the responsibilities of companies to respect human
rights.Principle 13 notes the responsibility to respect human rights and requires that business enterprises to:
(a) Avoid causing or contributing to adverse human rights impacts through their own activities, and address
such impacts when they occur;
(b) Seek to prevent or mitigate adverse human rights impacts that are directly linked to their operations,
products or services by their business relationships, even if they have not contributed to those impacts.
The COVID-19 pandemic has undoubtedly deeply affected businesses, many of whom had to permanently or
temporarily close down, reduce the scale of their operations, or significantly cut their workforce. With the pandemic
continuing to unfold, it has become increasingly difficult for employers to predict what the final impact on their
struggling businesses will be. Entire sectors such as tourism, entertainment and aviation sector are at risk of being
entirely wiped out if the current situation continues.
While businesses face massive challenges of unprecedented scale, workers face even more challenges. The
International Labour Organization has predicted that the equivalent of 495 million full-time jobs will be lost in the
second quarter of 2020. Workers in the informal economy, day laborers, migrants, temporary workers, and those
without social security coverage are amongst those who are most severely affected.
For migrant workers in particular, the pandemic has heightened pre-existing problems of wage theft. Some
businesses have taken advantage of the current pandemic, to unlawfully dismiss and withhold the wages of the
migrant workers that they employ. Many workers return home empty handed, having been coerced to forgo their
due wages and benefits they were entitled to, while other continue to work under exploitative conditions and
reduced wages for fear of losing their livelihood in the climate of a global economic recession.
While many businesses worldwide have started to receive some kind of government assistance or bailouts, those
schemes have rarely if ever included migrant workers as beneficiaries. When such benefits are provided to the
migrant workers through the employers, there is no mechanism to monitor and ensure that the migrant worker,
who is the ultimate beneficiary, actually receive the benefits.
Now more than ever, businesses must fulfill their legal obligations to protect the fundamental labor and human
rights of migrant workers, including paying them what they are entitled to. The choices we make right now will have
a bearing on the future that we shape together. In times of crisis, acting to uphold migrant workers’ rights is a
strong reflection of the core values of the businesses and our collective responsibility to shaping a better world post
pandemic.