South Africa’s BRICS partners have been identified as high-risk countries with which to trade by British global risk assessment specialists Maplecroft. A newly released labour standards study of Brazil, Russia, India and China highlights labour abuses in the four countries. In addition to being an assault on human rights, the poor labour conditions have the potential to disrupt logistics and supply chains. Similar risks will apply in other countries where there are poor labour practices. Maplecroft says it undertook the study because of the increased integration of companies based in the BRIC states into the supply chains of multinational corporations. While Brazil’s legal framework provides a comprehensive set of labour rights, their protection is often not guaranteed in practice, according to the report. Russia “does not have a good track record for enforcing occupational health and safety standards, despite legal guarantees,” it adds. Despite “sustained economic growth,” India “continues to face numerous labour-related problems, especially in relation to the exceptionally poor legal and regulatory framework for the protection of labour rights. “India is ranked as an ‘extreme risk’ country on Maplecroft’s Labour Rights and Protection Index 2012, reflecting severe risks for companies with supply chains in the country of being implicated in, or associated with, violations of internationally proclaimed labour rights,” it says. And despite recent improvements in China’s labour laws, especially in relation to higher legal minimum wages and new mechanisms to resolve labour disputes, the protection of labour rights is undermined by exceptionally poor legal enforcement.
