It is also hoped that the findings of this research study will inform the practice about regulations and models of CSR that are more applicable in developing country like Bangladesh. The beneficiary of this research study could range from business organisations to policy makers and academic scholars and researchers. The next chapter chapter 2 will attempt to explain CSR and address the first research question.
The literature review chapter 3 will explore various journals, articles and resources relative to CSR - particularly CSR in Bangladesh. And chapter 7 is dedicated to conclusion and recommendation.
Based on this definition, it can be argued that conforming to legal regulations regarding the conduct of corporate organisations in the society becomes one of the roles of the Corporate Code of Conduct.
Again, on the backdrop of this definition, it can be reasoned that CSR equates to social and ethical issues. Hence, the roles of Corporate Code of Conduct could range from community involvement to philanthropic donations, excellent corporate governance, implementation of green policies, environmental protection etc. However, regarding the implementation of the Corporate Codes of Conduct, several limitations have been pointed out. While BP was internationally acclaimed as an environmentally conscious corporation33, the oil spillage, which had a devastating environmental effect on the people that live in the Gulf of Mexico, infers that BP is not socially and environmentally responsible.
Given that more than workers that worked for international brand name retailers died in the accident - which could have been avoided if the workers had been exposed to appropriate and safe working environment, the claim for compensation as a result of CSR negligence was inevitable.
However, on the backdrops of all these allegations and revelations, Nike Inc. It also instigated development and adoption of well-structured CSR strategies and policies by the Shell Corporation in Nigeria. In essence, CSR is now intrinsically embedded into operations and practices of most multinational corporations around the world. Yet still, multinational corporations are still found to be engaging in wrong practices that constitute to poor CSR.
The below literature review specifically reviews CSR issues in Bangladesh. As aforementioned, CSR is still an emerging concept that allows executives of corporate organisations to adopt certain strategic policies in other to meet the needs and demands of its stakeholders; as well as to meet the ethical and social demands that are expected of corporate organisations by the society.
Evidently, in the process of running corporations and enterprises for financial gains, some legal principles and regulations - relative to social and environmental responsibilities — are expected to be followed by such corporations and enterprises.
Hence, it suffices to say that the roles of MNEs in Bangladesh centre on economic gains, and other non-financially focused responsibilities to the society; and that while some of those roles are legally required by law, some are performed voluntarily. Arguably, MNEs in third world country like Bangladesh are expected to continually face legitimacy issues as a result of diverse political, economic, institution, and social-environment of Bangladesh — which can be discontinuous and prone to uncertainties which preclude universal corporate policies.
Typical examples of the CSR roles that have been carried out by MNEs in Bangladesh include: alleviation of poverty; improvement of health care services; facilitation of access to education for Bangladeshi children; carrying out of charity activities; engaging in youth development activities; enrichment of Bangladeshi culture; empowerment of women; and patronisation of sports, music etc.
The overall compliance practices by MNEs in Bangladesh garment sectors have been poor, and this represents why poor CSR cases of MNEs that specialises in garment and textiles have been common recently. Furthermore, due to globalisation and increasing world economy, the decisions and actions of MNEs have been found to be having significant influence on governmental policies and enjoyment of human rights.
However, various issues and factors have been found to negatively impact on the practices 79 See Universal Declaration, supra note 30, art. Journal of Labour and Employment Law Vol. The Companies Act Bangladesh set the rights and liabilities of business owners and board of corporate directors; and stipulates the guidelines which Corporate Governance, Ownership Structure and characteristics of the Bangladesh corporations must conform.
On the other hand, this Act is often criticised because it makes no provision for social responsibilities of the directors or the managements of corporation. On a negative note, it has been pointed out that the statutory defence that this Act provides weakened its ability to compensate the investors91; and that it provides no adequate judicial observations related to its provision to facilitate CSR of the directors However, Bangladesh Labour Act , which was introduced in , has enough ingredients to suggest that it could be effectively used to address CSR in Bangladesh.
This Act addressed various issues relative to CSR such as, wages; working hours leave; employment of children and adolescence; appointment letter and ID; death benefits; safety; unfair labour practices from the part of employers; unfair labour practices from the part of the workers; determination of collective bargaining right etc.
Hence, it should adequately address and regulate CSR in Bangladesh. Environmental Conservation Act also represents another legal tool, through which CSR issues in Bangladesh is often addressed. This Act provides for conservation of the environment and improvement of environmental standard; and it also control and mitigate environmental pollution.
The fact that, this Act has been continually updated - with current one being Bangladesh Environmental Conservation Act , also shows that the Act has been effective over the years.
It has however been contended that this description of CSR Reporting is based on the assumption that companies have other wider roles and responsibilities other than to enrich their shareholders. Consequently, it can be asserted that enforcement of mandatory Corporate Social Disclosure on the Bangladesh companies can lead to transparency in the various CSR issues of these companies, and this can culminate in regulation of their CSR.
However, statistics delineates that quantity of information disclosed by Bangladesh companies under the platform of Corporate Social disclosure is often minimal. Thus it can be emphasised that acquisition of these certifications can actually inform the representatives of companies about effective CSR practices and regulations. Despite adoption of these aforementioned regulatory frameworks, and strategies which promote good corporate code of conduct among Bangladesh companies, lack of enforcement of industrial laws and regulation; weak unions; lack of consumer rights and groups; and most importantly, high level of corruption within the regulatory bodies have been ascertained as factors that facilitate violation of CSR in Bangladesh.
It explores the data collection method, research strategy, data quality assessment method, and how the collected data were analysed. Peer-Reviewed Literature approach is a reproducible, explicit and systematic mean of synthesising, evaluating and identifying existing literature about completed works and research findings of other researchers and academic scholars. Searches for peer-reviewed journals, articles and other literature regarding roles of CSR; and CSR practices and regulation in Bangladesh were henceforth conducted with search engines outlined below.
UWL e-resources electronic search engine 2. EbscoHost 3. HeinOnline Due to the presumed volume of returned data expected from these search engines, certain key exclusion and inclusion criteria were adopted in the decision tree for selecting the literature for review and further analysis.
They are peer-reviewed and full text. They discuss practice and regulation of CSR in Bangladesh 4. They discuss how practice and regulation of CSR in Bangladesh can be improved. Exclusion Criteria Articles, journals and literature were excluded if: 1.
They are not peer-reviewed, non-full text or not published in English 2. They are too focused on how practice and regulation of CSR can be improved in other countries apart from Bangladesh.
The eventual database keywords for the search engines revolve around the following: 1. Corporate Social Responsibility 2. Roles of Corporate Social Responsibility 3. Out of the returned literature, journals and articles, those with large sample sizes were selected over those with low sample sizes for further analysis. This is because contents of literature with large sample size have been found to be more credible and valid than those with small sample size.
In addition to systematic review of the abstracts and contents of retrieved documents and adoption of quality scoring system for their evaluation, Critical Appraisal Skills Program CASP systematic review checklist tool was also used to critically assess the retrieved literature, journals and articles. This was to ensure that they matched the aims and objectives of the research. By using thematic analysis, the following themes were drawn out by the researcher in the course of analysing, evaluating and reviewing the returned information from the search engines.
The themes were: 1. Importance of CSR 2. Corporate Governance and CSR 5. Table 4. The report Group industry in Bangladesh also cited poor purchasing practices, poor government strategies, poor compliance culture, poor working conditions as some of the critical reasons why poor CSR is rampart in Bangladesh 5 D Kinley and S Multinational This is a research project which Joseph Corporation and focussed on evolving legal and Human Rights: human rights responsibility of Question about their corporate organisations.
The article relationships pointed out that domestic laws of many states fail to enforce practice of adequate human rights on corporation; and that most of the notorious cases of human rights abuse by MNEs occurs in third world countries such as Bangladesh. Economy It also explores various challenges facing corporations in implementation of positive CSR practices. Bias encapsulates design, data, analysis and presentation factors that are capable of influencing research findings negatively.
The preference for peer-reviewed literature also centred on facilitation of validity, as peer-reviewed literature are more reliable and henceforth more valid than non-peer reviewed ones. In other to prevent external errors from affecting the validity of the research findings, the researcher further ensured that all the collected data were password-protected during the research. The extents to which these themes represent or accurately depict different aspects of the research topic, and the research questions are evaluated in this chapter.
For instance, journal 20 explains that within modern business environments, CSR is rightly perceived as a vital tool for business growth and sustainability. Literature 11 also cited sustainability development, creation of jobs, capacity building and transfer of technology as some of the importance and roles of CSR.
And literature 2 specifically provided evidence which reveals that sustainable developments are achievable in Bangladesh and Pakistan through effective practice of CSR.
All these lines of evidences suggest that CRS is very important to the corporations as well as the societies where they operate. Given their huge economic and political powers, Literature 9 states that Multinational Corporations have legal duty to respect human rights.
Similarly, literature 3 maintains that all corporations have direct responsibilities to incorporate observation of human rights into their operational activities.
In essence, these literatures inferred that MNEs has wider moral and legal obligations to use their influence in promoting respect for human rights.
The main themes of literature 3 were also echoed by literature 5 which explains that in modern times, there are considerable scopes for the impacts of MNEs relative to human rights to be positive, as corporate activities are stereotypically perceived as bad for human rights.
Literature 5 further reiterated some of the already known facts such as: the most notorious incidents of human rights abuse my MNEs occur in third world countries such as Bangladesh; and that typical examples of such human rights abuse are child labour; gross infringement of environmental rights; suppression of rights to labour groups or freedom of association and speech. Literature 9 in particular called for MNEs to uphold Universal Declaration of Human Rights as it represents an effective tool through which unjust labour and slavery can be addressed.
In support of literature 5, literature 9 also listed some of the rights which are encapsulated by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as: provision of safe and healthy workplaces; provision of fair employment practices; implementation of responsible environmental protection and practices; promotion of freedom of association among the employees; and promotion of freedom of expression. Analysis of these journals and articles suggests that MNEs are well aware of their duty regarding human rights of their employees and the human rights of the inhabitant of their operating areas.
S import laws, which covers: appropriate compensation for employees; adoption of reasonable working hours; refrain from forced labour and child labour; and overall commitment to basic human rights. Regarding Standards for Vendor Partners undated. The finding of the research explored in literature 10 infers that effective practice of good CSR by MNEs often culminate in addition of values to the worth of a company or a corporation.
This research study reveals that MNEs are adjudged to have performed well, if their performance in non-financial areas namely: human rights; business ethics; environmental policies; community development; workplace issues etc.
This literature argues that pressures on MNEs to have good image while improving the values of the firms at the same time, has led to a surge in increase of good CSR practices in Bangladesh over the years. It was also highlighted in literature 11 that globalisation, proliferation of media attention, propagations by Non-Governmental Organisations NGOs and increase in popularity of global information sharing systems are some of the factors that are driving MNEs in Bangladesh towards adoption of positive CSR practices.
From this point of view, it can be presumed that positive CSR by MNEs in Bangladesh is probably a pragmatic response to consumer and civil society pressures.
The research findings into the operation of Wal-Mart in Bangladesh however indicated that activities of MNEs in developing countries do not always lead to positive CSR. Literature 12 enumerates that corporate activities of Wal-Mart and similar MNEs in Bangladesh are laden with corruption and bribery which have indirectly contributed to occurrence of numerous workplace accidents, disasters and death of innocent people, largely the staffs of Wal-Mart and its subsidiary companies in Bangladesh.
Besides these, the literature further stresses that Wal-Mart corporate code of conduct is predominantly dominated by financial considerations which have little regards for ethical concerns; and that the value-set of MNEs in Bangladesh do not conform with the general societal values.
These facts were also soundly resonated in literature 13, which was based on the examination of the practices of CSR in Bangladesh and the extent to which the Bangladesh companies and MNEs complied with international labour standards in Bangladesh.
The information and data depicted by this literature indicated that investment of Bangladesh based MNEs in CSR do not correlate with the huge profits they make as results of their operations in Bangladesh. The findings of the research upon which this literature is based also supportively reiterated the findings of literature 12 by implying that some of the corporations in Bangladesh do not strictly follow labour acts appropriately.
Initially, companies emerged as a division of society and gradually changed to an association of individuals. One of these obligations is social responsibility owed to the society in which it operates and thereby provides its products and services to the people for consumption. All these responsibilities have had a legal dimension which may vary between jurisdictions and legal systems.
Therefore a single definition of any of these responsibilities is hard to be articulated. Islam is a religion of peace, harmony, brotherhood and tolerance. The Islamic principles consider business organisations and their responsibilities in a somewhat different way. Hence the religious faith and conviction of Muslims considerably influence their everyday decisions including those of business transactions. There are as good as six approaches to corporate governance recognised around the globe, an Islamic approach is one of them.
Further, the Islamic law puts the foremost emphasis on the structure of a commercial transaction in order to determine the presence of any element that may invalidate the profit stemmed from a business deal, and this structural investigation is somewhat similar to that of the secular corporate law which aims to strictly comply with the corporate charter. This is so because, Islamic corporate governance is concerned with both 39 the substance as well as the form of the business transaction.
Central to this relationship is the protection of employees at the workplace by their employers. Making money showing disregard for the relevant Islamic dictates should be religiously vitiated, therefore, would be regarded as prohibited for a Muslim employer.
Despite the enormous significance of the garment sector for the national economy of Bangladesh, the incidents of deaths and fatal injuries used to fall on deaf ears until the collapse of an eight- storey building Rana Plaza in April which housed five garment factories.
The Rana Plaza itself has killed at least 1, garment workers and seriously injured more than others, whilst workers remain missing even after a year of the debacle. The devastating fire at Tazreen Fashions Ltd in November alone burnt down workers when its nine-storey factory building caught fire originating from an unauthorised cotton store room on the ground floor. In addition, the Tazreen building had several deficiencies in respect of workplace safety.
The present opportunity to improve working conditions in Bangladesh cannot be squandered. The Islamic model rests on largely the stakeholder model of corporate regulation. Further, the Islamic law also fosters the protection of environment, vegetation and even animals. This is so because, all the prohibited things in business have negative impacts on human health and life.
In addition, it is a fundamental right in Bangladesh as enshrined in its Constitution. For example, the Supreme Court in Ain O Salish Kendra ASK v Government of Bangladesh held that the state is constitutionally obligated to make effective provisions for securing the right to life, living and livelihood within its economic capacity.
Labour is well regarded as being dignified human 60 Art 32 of the Constitution of Bangladesh. Even no workers can be compelled to do more than what they are capable of doing, and the employer is obligated to provide safe workplace.
You should not overburden them with what they cannot bear, and if you do so, help them in their job. See also Elsaman above n 19, The criterion of honour in the sight of Allah is righteousness and honest living. Prohibitions against forced labour and negligence about safe working environment are categorical and unambiguous.
This is certainly distinctive from the conventional laws. This underscores the central thirst of brotherhood and equality in Islam, which disapproves any lack of safety at the workplace and prohibits any prejudicial or deleterious behaviour of the employer with their employees.
The employers or owners of the garment factories should adhere to these Islamic principles as long as they believe in Islam apart from the potential sanctions against the breach of the pertinent municipal law. But in practice, their conduct directly contradicts the Islamic principles. Tazreen mid managers reportedly compelled factory workers to stay at work despite fires, whilst its owner ignored the responsibility to ensure safe working environment for his workers.
On the other hand, the owner of Rana Plaza along with the proprietors of the factories established therein allegedly forced the ill-fated workers to come to work despite the repeated public warnings of life-risk of the occupants. Therefore the owners and executives, instead of their corporations, bear the liability for the casualties mentioned earlier.
They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood. This right shall be protected by law. No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his life. These rights are enshrined in its Art 13 and Article 13 reads: 84 Work is a right guaranteed by the State and Society for each person able to work.
Everyone shall be free to choose the work that suits him [or her] best and which serves his [or her] interests and those of society. The employee shall have the right to safety and security as well as to all other social guarantees.
He [or she] may neither be assigned work beyond his capacity nor be subjected to compulsion or exploited or harmed in any way. Conclusions Both international secular instruments and the principles of Islamic law strongly assert that maintenance of workplace safety is an essential obligation of employers.
CSR does not uphold a concept of charity or philanthropy; rather it denotes the responsibility of corporations as an integral part of the national and international communities to protect those who may be affected by their corporations actions or omissions in both short and long terms.
They fear that they may lose whatever they are presently earning, if they want more from their employers. Therefore, they have to continue to work with a calm disappointment for years. The discontent gets worse when it is amplified by safety concerns.
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