Campaign gets TFL financial backing

A campaign to improve life for low-paid workers in the global electronics industry, led by the University of Greenwich, has received financial backing from Transport for London. 

The university's School of Law has been working for three years to bring the working conditions for millions of workers in the electronics supply chain to international attention. Excessive working hours, forced overtime, discrimination, punitive rules and extremely low wages in countries including China, the Philippines and Mexico, are among the practices its investigations have revealed. High-risk or unsafe working conditions are commonplace, including a lack of safety precautions for the use of hazardous substances.

Now Transport for London has announced it is providing €60,000 per year in support of the research. This will help fund ElectronicsWatch, a group set up by the university and its partners to help large companies and 'public buyers' to understand and support the rights of workers in the supply chain, and create a market for responsibly procured goods.

Dr Olga Martin-Ortega, leader at the BHRE, says: "The backing of Transport for London is hugely significant. It gives great momentum to our research, which ultimately seeks to improve working conditions. We aim to ensure that all involved – states, companies and individuals – live up to their responsibility to respect human rights and human dignity in manufacturing the products we consume.

Read full story on http://www2.gre.ac.uk/about/news/articles/2016/a3617-law-and-tfl

Organized all day symposium becomes a success

The BHRE group hosted two events on human and environmental conditions in the electronics industry. The first was 'Behind your Screen', a public event with a panel of speakers, and the second was 'Socially Responsible Public Procurement of Electronic Products', an all day symposium. Both events featured a variety of speakers from all over the globe, and were well attended and an overall success. We would like to thank our speakers and funders for making the events possible.

European Business Ethics Network Research Conference Holds at Copenhagen

Opi Outhwaite is attending the European Business Ethics Network (EBEN) Research Conference in Copenhagen. As part of the Special Interest Group on Business and Human Rights she will present the paper Human Rights in Global Supply Chains: Corporate Social Responsibility and Public Procurement in the European Union (Opi Outhwaite and Olga Martin Ortega)