CSR as riot prevention?
Tuesday, 11 August 2009
Rodney Reed
Should a company with a wholehearted commitment to corporate social responsibility (CSR) expect their staff to be contented, productive and proud to be employed by the company?
The 'business case' for CSR is that companies which understand CSR and apply its principles and practises fully will have direct benefits in their business activities. So which of the component parts of CSR might prevent staff dissatisfaction, strikes, walkouts, blocked roads, broken windows and rioting?
Occupational Health and Safety: Machinists working in cramped, poorly lit, badly ventilated factories, where they breathe air polluted with dust and fibres will be understandably unhappy with their employers. If the toilets are dirty and smelly and if there is not a good supply of clean drinking water their grievances build up and their health deteriorates. So a socially responsible factory owner and his managers will create and maintain good standards of cleanliness and good working conditions for reasons of factory efficiency and in order to have a contented well motivated workforce.
Company Reputation for trading honestly, fairly and not cheating: Most employees work because they need to earn money to support their families but the cash they receive is not their only motivation. Being proud to be a worker of a company with a good reputation and employed by managers who are known to be fair and honest 'attaches' employees to the employer. Workers who sense that their employers 'cut corners', avoid paying income tax and value added tax (VAT) and find ways to avoid applying the Labour Act or Environmental Regulations will feel little if any moral obligation to 'play by the rules' themselves.
Human Resources as a CSR activity means a company 'investing in people' as well as in premises and modern machinery. This 'investment in people' is in the provision of training which might be formal professional training for senior staff or vocational training or elementary education in numeracy and literacy for basic grade workers and machine operators. This 'investing' will also be evident in the provision of personal and health insurance. When 'respect' is a company culture, workers will be directed and supervised in ways that are not abusive and they will be protected from exploitation and abuse.
Unafraid of the unions: Corrupt union officials, politicised unions and rent-seeking behaviour by labour 'representatives' has ensured that trade unionism has a negative image in Bangladesh. Free and democratic collective bargaining with direct routes for representations and complaints to be resolved by senior management is a positive and socially responsible way to achieve a peaceful productive factory environment. Labour representatives ('shop stewards') who are employed in the factory and who do the same daily work as the other employees, who are then democratically elected by the workers to represent them, is modern democratic trade unionism. Proprietors and managers who listen to and act on the representations and complaints and suggestions of their workers expressed through these elected labour representatives will reap the rewards of a productive well motivated workforce.
Childcare: Sometimes it is the case that the only reason a factory has a crèche or kindergarten or child care facility is because the international buyers have made it a social compliance requirement that the factory has a room and toys and a supervisor. If, however, the workers are not able to make their own 'in family' childcare arrangements, then the offer of good quality childcare can encourage women to come back to work after giving birth or to stay at work if 'family arrangements' break down. Women machinists will work without distraction if they know their children are close to them in the factory and are well cared for.
Medical attention: Healthy employees can be more efficient machinists and factory labourers. When an investment has been made in the training of staff or in the education of workers keeping them healthy and at work is actually protecting that investment. The medical facilities could be emergency first aid and long term care where the company employs a doctor and nurses and provides 'free of charge' drugs and medicines to the workers and their immediate families. It also includes a company contributing to the cost of long term medication or major surgery.
Caring for the environment around the factory where the workers live - so they can breathe clean air and drink pure water. Using less raw material and minimising and recycling waste materials reduces costs and is good business. Efficient generators that do not emit un-burnt diesel as dense black smoke, effluent treatment plants that are efficient and discharge useable water, incinerators that operate at high temperature and so produce no poisonous gases and solid wastes disposed of legally are socially responsible business actions and protect the community living around the factory and so enhance the companies local and national reputation.
Paying the correct wage: This might be the Government-defined 'minimum wage' or an internationally recognised 'living wage' but at whatever level a socially responsible employer will pay wages on time every time, together with overtime when earned and the festival bonus when due. When the hourly wage is tied to a particular rate of production or is a 'piece rate' then having a democratic, effective labour negotiation arrangement - a union - will help to avoid the negotiations being conducted during strikes, walkouts and riots. Similarly when the 'cost of living' or the cost of staple foodstuff rises seasonally obliging the workers to negotiate for a wage increase then having an effective, fully representative trade union will allow these discussions to happen fairly and amicably.
OK so the conspiracy theorists say the better factories are attacked by 'criminals' and 'outsiders' organised by jealous rivals! There may or may not be some truth in this opinion. However why would workers in a factory run by a proprietor and managers fully committed to 'in factory CSR' take to the streets, break factory windows and vandalise cars. In a clean well lit properly ventilated CSR compliant factory, the workers will realise they are well treated, consulted, their views acted on, paid on time every time and employed by a proprietor they respect -- so why would they riot?
CSR is good, efficient factory management and so it is an antidote to strikes, walkouts and rioting: Reed Consulting Bd Ltd is able to assist companies in breaking through these conceptual and practical barriers on a 'company by company' or 'factory by factory' basis. Our approach to this work includes: - introductory training courses and master classes for general managers and senior managers; the provision of 'in factory' workshops on human resources and labour relations. Reed Consulting also provides factory environmental and energy efficiency consultancy and organises waste reducing factory walks.
To find out more about our 'factory consultancy service' - which includes factory environmental optimisation, management effectiveness, occupational health and safety and other practical labour relations and social compliance 'tools' e-mail Reed Consulting Bd Ltd customercare@reedconsultingbd.com. Its Directors and senior staff can then arrange a meeting to show the companies the ways in which they can benefit from our practical factory expertise. Our Reed Consulting Bd Ltd mission is to 'enable business in Bangladesh to be socially responsible, sustainable and profitable'.
The writer is Chairman, Reed Consulting Bd. Ltd, and can be reached at
e-mail: www.reedconsultingbd.com
Should a company with a wholehearted commitment to corporate social responsibility (CSR) expect their staff to be contented, productive and proud to be employed by the company?
The 'business case' for CSR is that companies which understand CSR and apply its principles and practises fully will have direct benefits in their business activities. So which of the component parts of CSR might prevent staff dissatisfaction, strikes, walkouts, blocked roads, broken windows and rioting?
Occupational Health and Safety: Machinists working in cramped, poorly lit, badly ventilated factories, where they breathe air polluted with dust and fibres will be understandably unhappy with their employers. If the toilets are dirty and smelly and if there is not a good supply of clean drinking water their grievances build up and their health deteriorates. So a socially responsible factory owner and his managers will create and maintain good standards of cleanliness and good working conditions for reasons of factory efficiency and in order to have a contented well motivated workforce.
Company Reputation for trading honestly, fairly and not cheating: Most employees work because they need to earn money to support their families but the cash they receive is not their only motivation. Being proud to be a worker of a company with a good reputation and employed by managers who are known to be fair and honest 'attaches' employees to the employer. Workers who sense that their employers 'cut corners', avoid paying income tax and value added tax (VAT) and find ways to avoid applying the Labour Act or Environmental Regulations will feel little if any moral obligation to 'play by the rules' themselves.
Human Resources as a CSR activity means a company 'investing in people' as well as in premises and modern machinery. This 'investment in people' is in the provision of training which might be formal professional training for senior staff or vocational training or elementary education in numeracy and literacy for basic grade workers and machine operators. This 'investing' will also be evident in the provision of personal and health insurance. When 'respect' is a company culture, workers will be directed and supervised in ways that are not abusive and they will be protected from exploitation and abuse.
Unafraid of the unions: Corrupt union officials, politicised unions and rent-seeking behaviour by labour 'representatives' has ensured that trade unionism has a negative image in Bangladesh. Free and democratic collective bargaining with direct routes for representations and complaints to be resolved by senior management is a positive and socially responsible way to achieve a peaceful productive factory environment. Labour representatives ('shop stewards') who are employed in the factory and who do the same daily work as the other employees, who are then democratically elected by the workers to represent them, is modern democratic trade unionism. Proprietors and managers who listen to and act on the representations and complaints and suggestions of their workers expressed through these elected labour representatives will reap the rewards of a productive well motivated workforce.
Childcare: Sometimes it is the case that the only reason a factory has a crèche or kindergarten or child care facility is because the international buyers have made it a social compliance requirement that the factory has a room and toys and a supervisor. If, however, the workers are not able to make their own 'in family' childcare arrangements, then the offer of good quality childcare can encourage women to come back to work after giving birth or to stay at work if 'family arrangements' break down. Women machinists will work without distraction if they know their children are close to them in the factory and are well cared for.
Medical attention: Healthy employees can be more efficient machinists and factory labourers. When an investment has been made in the training of staff or in the education of workers keeping them healthy and at work is actually protecting that investment. The medical facilities could be emergency first aid and long term care where the company employs a doctor and nurses and provides 'free of charge' drugs and medicines to the workers and their immediate families. It also includes a company contributing to the cost of long term medication or major surgery.
Caring for the environment around the factory where the workers live - so they can breathe clean air and drink pure water. Using less raw material and minimising and recycling waste materials reduces costs and is good business. Efficient generators that do not emit un-burnt diesel as dense black smoke, effluent treatment plants that are efficient and discharge useable water, incinerators that operate at high temperature and so produce no poisonous gases and solid wastes disposed of legally are socially responsible business actions and protect the community living around the factory and so enhance the companies local and national reputation.
Paying the correct wage: This might be the Government-defined 'minimum wage' or an internationally recognised 'living wage' but at whatever level a socially responsible employer will pay wages on time every time, together with overtime when earned and the festival bonus when due. When the hourly wage is tied to a particular rate of production or is a 'piece rate' then having a democratic, effective labour negotiation arrangement - a union - will help to avoid the negotiations being conducted during strikes, walkouts and riots. Similarly when the 'cost of living' or the cost of staple foodstuff rises seasonally obliging the workers to negotiate for a wage increase then having an effective, fully representative trade union will allow these discussions to happen fairly and amicably.
OK so the conspiracy theorists say the better factories are attacked by 'criminals' and 'outsiders' organised by jealous rivals! There may or may not be some truth in this opinion. However why would workers in a factory run by a proprietor and managers fully committed to 'in factory CSR' take to the streets, break factory windows and vandalise cars. In a clean well lit properly ventilated CSR compliant factory, the workers will realise they are well treated, consulted, their views acted on, paid on time every time and employed by a proprietor they respect -- so why would they riot?
CSR is good, efficient factory management and so it is an antidote to strikes, walkouts and rioting: Reed Consulting Bd Ltd is able to assist companies in breaking through these conceptual and practical barriers on a 'company by company' or 'factory by factory' basis. Our approach to this work includes: - introductory training courses and master classes for general managers and senior managers; the provision of 'in factory' workshops on human resources and labour relations. Reed Consulting also provides factory environmental and energy efficiency consultancy and organises waste reducing factory walks.
To find out more about our 'factory consultancy service' - which includes factory environmental optimisation, management effectiveness, occupational health and safety and other practical labour relations and social compliance 'tools' e-mail Reed Consulting Bd Ltd customercare@reedconsultingbd.com. Its Directors and senior staff can then arrange a meeting to show the companies the ways in which they can benefit from our practical factory expertise. Our Reed Consulting Bd Ltd mission is to 'enable business in Bangladesh to be socially responsible, sustainable and profitable'.
The writer is Chairman, Reed Consulting Bd. Ltd, and can be reached at
e-mail: www.reedconsultingbd.com