The purpose of this guide is to increase the understanding of the four labour principles of principles 3, 4, 5, and 6 as well as to provide an inventory of key resources to help integrate these principles into business operations.

This webinar conducted by an ILO expert examines principle 3 of the UN Global Compact's principles in detail. The webinar addresses challenges companies may face in their workplaces and in their operations to realize freedom of association, a human right at the core of ILO values, which also underpins and supports the other nine UN Global Compact principles.

Many studies show a positive correlation between employee relations and financial performance, which is especially relevant in a labour-intensive sector such as retail. This guide describes lessons learnt from a PRI-coordinated engagement that saw 24 investors managing US$1.5 trillion of assets work together to enhance 27 global retail companies’ performance and reporting on employee relations.

Highlights the central role businesses play in determining whether or not global temperature increases can be limited to 1.5°C by 2050, and identifies key issues that businesses should consider when assessing climate change and human rights - such as climate refugees, human trafficking, litigation hotspots, investor demands, and cost of inaction. 

Detailed description of the SDG 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth) with introductory remarks from the ILO Director-General, Guy Ryder.

Building on the original Guide for General Counsel on Corporate Sustainability published in 2015, Version 2.0 provides further guidance to General Counsel to ensure they are better placed and better equipped to drive change and deliver value to their organizations through an increased focus on corporate sustainability. Topics include: Corporate Sustainability and Business Integrity Corporate Sustainability and Business Integrity Human Rights and Supply Chain Due Diligence Corporate Sustainability and Grievance Mechanisms Challenges to Corporate Sustainability - Managing a Crisis Please fill out the form below to download the full guide.

revised in 2018, this self-guided 40 minute E-learning module provides an introduction to the ILO’s Tripartite Declaration of Principles concerning Multinational Enterprises and Social Policy (MNE Declaration). The Declaration provides recommendations to governments, enterprises, and employers’ and workers’ organizations on how to maximize – each with different roles and responsibilities - the positive contribution of multinational enterprises to socioeconomic development and decent work, more specifically in the areas of employment, training, conditions of work and life and industrial relations. The module includes an overview of the principles of the MNE Declaration and real cases of how it can be put into practice and address a range of labour and employment issues in different contexts. It also provides a description of how the MNE Declaration relates to other international instruments which can also guide business behaviour, such as the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises, the UN Global Compact, the UN Business and Human Rights Framework and Guiding Principles, and ISO 26000.

The responsibility to comply with all applicable local, national, regional and international laws is a central tenet of the corporate responsibility to respect human rights. Yet sometimes local or national laws pose requirements that conflict with internationally recognized human rights, thereby making it difficult or impossible for business enterprises to meet their responsibility to respect human rights. The goal of this Good Practice Note is to provide business enterprises with a non-exhaustive set of good practices for addressing situations in which local or national laws appear to conflict with internationally recognized human rights.

Provides the first ever estimates of child labour and human trafficking in global supply chains. A significant share of child labour and human trafficking in global supply chains occurs at lower tiers, in activities such as raw material extraction and agriculture, making due diligence, visibility and traceability challenging. The report outlines several key areas in which governments and businesses can do more. It underscores the critical role of States in addressing gaps in statutory legislation, enforcement, and access to justice and in establishing a framework for responsible business conduct. For business, the report underscores the need for a comprehensive, whole-of-supply-chain approach to due diligence.

Migrant workers are often susceptible to unfair recruitment and hiring practices, leaving them highly vulnerable to exploitation. For many, the debt burden they carry from excessive recruitment fees and migration costs exacerbates this vulnerability and can lead to debt bondage and forced labour. This note calls on business to take action to address such exploitative practices and their associated risk to labour abuse. References to relevant international standards and links to multi-stakeholder initiatives and additional resources are included to provide further guidance.

The ILO Helpdesk is a service from the International Labour Organization that provides a one-stop-shop to help company managers and workers understand the application of international labour standards.

  This report explores how businesses can enhance their resilience to the impacts of climate change on their supply chains and improve their supply chain management in the process.