Only 28 percent of global companies have labor and human rights policies

INSIGHTS in Ethics and Leadership

Only 28 percent of global companies – and less than half of those with market capitalizations of more than $10 billion – have labor and human rights policies covering their global supply chains, according to an analysis of 2,500 companies by Harvard Law School's Pensions Project and ASSET4. “Benchmarking Corporate Policies on Labor and Human Rights in Global Supply Chains,” finds that even "fewer have follow up procedures; only 15 percent have issued a detailed LHR code of conduct for their suppliers." About 43 percent of companies based in Europe have labor and human rights policies for suppliers, compared to only 23 percent of US companies and 20 percent of Asian firms. The industries most likely to have such policies are those that have experienced negative publicity about abuses by suppliers.

See Harvard Law School Occasional Paper, Benchmarking Corporate Policies on Labor and Human Rights in Global Supply Chains.