Here’s another excellent post from the CEO Ethics Blog: “Business Ethics: Sweatshop Updates”

“According to Jung, watchdog group Fair Labor Association has reported that factories making clothing and sports shoes for Nike, Adidas-Salomon AG and other US manufacturers still force employees to work excessive overtime, fail to follow safety guidelines and block workers’ efforts to organize. Furthermore, the third annual audit of the FLA found that the number of violations per factory had risen to 18.2 in 2004 from 15.1 in 2003.”

TAGS: Sweat Shop | CSR | Nike | FLA

I read CEO Ethics every week and always find great articles on there about topics that interest me. A few weeks ago they posted an article about Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in Europe that is an enjoyable read if you have not already seen it: “Business Ethics: CSR in Central and Eastern Europe“.

“Executives surveyed consider the most significant barriers to CSR as ‘perceived overall cost’ and ‘lack of appropriate regulations.’ They see a lack of sufficiently clear CSR policies and would welcome clarity from the government. While they believe that the decision to engage in CSR activities is voluntary, they feel that government and other stakeholders could create a more conducive environment to stimulate participation.”

TAGS: CSR | Social Responsibility | Europe | Business

Here’s an interesting article worth reading from FinancialTimes.com: “UN Envoy Claims Torture Widespread in China”

Here are a few quotes to pique your interest:

“The use of torture in China is widespread, and frequently carried out by police who exercise “wide discretion” within the country’s under-developed legal system, a United Nations special envoy said on Friday…

“‘An important element in combating torture is judicial oversight,’ said the report. ‘However, China lacks an independent judiciary, and the judiciary suffers from relatively low status in comparison to other state organs…’

“Mr Nowak said China still did not exclude statements made as a result of torture, presume innocence, allow avoidance of self-incrimination, permit habeas corpus or even have a system for lodging complaints.”

TAGS: China | Torture | Human Rights | UN