Audit and remediation of labour issues in supply chains: Some reflections
The proliferation of certification standards and schemes to monitor and improve labour conditions in supply chains reflects increasing pressure for organisations to identify and eliminate exploitation of workers at both a domestic and global level. With this proliferation comes a certain level of confusion and competition between standards (Fransen et al. 2019). This presentation will focus on auditing and remediation practices across a variety of schemes (both domestic and international) and reflect upon the potential of such practices to institute real and sustained changes in working conditions. This presentation draws on research currently being conducted in the Australian contract cleaning sector, the cotton industry and the transport and logistics sector.
About the speaker
A/Prof Sarah Kaine is currently Research Director: Future of Work, Organising and Enterprise in the Centre for Business and Social Innovation (UTS Business School). Sarah is interested in: innovation in employment relations and regulation — beyond the bounds of traditional labour law; Corporate Social Responsibility and its link to industrial relations, and; the regulation of labour standards in domestic and international supply chains. Specifically, she has explored possibilities for regulatory alternatives in a number of industrial contexts, including publicly funded care service provision and in privately controlled road transport. Her current research investigates multi-stakeholder regulation of domestic and international supply chains, and work in, and regulation of, the digitally enabled economy. Sarah’s research has appeared in journals such as Human Relations, Journal of Business Ethics, Economic and Industrial Democracy, Human Resource Management Journal, Australian Journal of Labour Law and the Journal of Industrial Relations. Prior to becoming an academic, Sarah worked as an industrial relations practitioner and a consultant to not-for-profit organisations.
Date and Time
Thu., 21 November 2019
2:00–3:30 PM AEDT
Location
Finance Decision Lab (Room 110, Level 1)
4 Eastern Road, Macquarie University
North Ryde NSW 2109
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Flyer
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