mafiwastafor workers' rights in the United Arab Emirates
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CSR Debunked
This section remains under construction. Which is to say that it is important to get it right when dealing with multinationals and we are still ruminating on how best to make our case. The conclusion will almost certianly be that corporate social responsibility could and should be a force for good, but is unfortuantely being used to artificially manipulate brand values. CSR remains image, rather than issue driven. The UAE provides stark and irrefutable evidence of this. A full outline of our argument will go online next month - May 2006. We can, however, provide you with information on our contact with BP.
The last version of this site referred to BP as 'tossers' - an error and one we truly regret and for which we apologise unreservedly. BP's Corporate Social Responsibility finally contacted us in January of this year in response to this letter. A relatively constructive conversation followed. BP explained that they were doing all they could at their sites. BP has shareholding in the following operating companies in the UAE: ADMA (15%), ADCO (10%), BUNDUQ (33%) and ADGAS (10%). We pointed out that this was totally incorrect. BP then suggested that they had very little power to influence thier partners in the UAE. We pointed out that the head of at least one of general managers of the operating companies above is a BP secondee. BP's spokesperson spluttered somewhat, and said he'd have to check that. The conversation ended amicably, with a request on our part for BP to do more and a promise on BP's part to get back to us. We sent a follow-up letter thanking BP for their interest and reiterating our belief that BP involvement, as well as being the right thing to do ethically, could make good business sense . Silence.
Below is the blurb on CSR from the last version of the Mafiwasta site.
Corporations are not to blame for the situation in the UAE. The blame lies almost exclusively with the UAE's government. A corporation's responsibilities are to its shareholders. Put very simply, their job is to maximize revenue and minimize costs, not to save the world. They are part of the world in which we live and, as Philippe Legrain put it in his book 'Open World', "If you find it hard to believe that good can come from seeking profits, consider what would happen if companies didn't try to make a profit. They would soon go bust and the jobs and the products they create would disappear."
So, on one level, yes we should leave corporations alone and allow them to concentrate on creating jobs and wealth. Much as we'd like them to be, we shouldn't really expect them to be socially conscious; it's government's role to ensure social inclusion through appropriate legislation and regulation. Captains of industry / Masters Of The Universe talk in terms of things making 'good business sense', and in the past it simply did not make good business sense to plough millions into 'Save The Gibbons Of Gambia' campaigns, whereas it made perfect business sense to cut costs by cutting wages. Brand consciousness, however, has made for a shift in the paradigm. Brand is arguably more important now than it has ever been. Just think of those horrific 'Shell' adverts voiced by the ever so slightly talented John Hannah. In 2002 the accountants Andersen collapsed because their brand was irrevocably damaged by their association with Enron. (Only the brand disappeared - the work and the workers simply went to Deloitte and Touche.) In an age where a bad image is potentially as dangerous as a bad business model, corporations have ploughed millions into corporate social responsibility programs to bolster and then maintain their brand value. It's little wonder they invest so heavily, given the estimated balance sheet value of these brands.
It is in order to give the impression that they are Saviours Of The Plains And The Rainforests, as opposed to hard-nosed market-penetrators, that corporations sign up to these ostensibly strict, but ultimately self-penned, codes of ethical conduct. You don't have to look too hard to find oodles of CSR blurb on their respective websites - after you've browsed through a few they all start to look the same - "40 ways in which we are BRILLIANT and THE BEST at what we do and ETHICAL. Real Goddamn ETHICAL!" accompanied, for some inexplicable reason, by lots of pictures of people sky-diving or running along deserted beaches in linen shirts.
Although we do not hold corporations responsible for what goes on in the UAE we do believe that if corporations intend to gain some sort of competitive advantage from the way in which they brand themselves (Dell even claim to have 'a soul'), then they should at least be held to their lofty promises. If 'brand' is indeed represented on the balance sheet, and corporations are profiting, via higher share-prices, from their partly self-cultivated image, then don't they have a responsibility to be who they say they are?
The UAE is littered with Fortune 500 companies conscious of the need for a presence in the area. They are actively lured by tax breaks, outstanding infrastructure and low set-up costs (it's real cheap to build stuff out here because you don't have to pay the people who build it very much at all) . It would be highly unlikely to find examples of any of these corporate behemoths directly involved in exploitative work practices. However, due to their unavoidable associations with local contractors they cannot claim to have strict ethical codes of conduct but no responsibility for what goes on. It's one or the other.
A good start would be to assist us in lobbying the UAE to sign up to conventions 87 and 98 of the ILO's core conventions. If they're not part of the solution then they are part of the problem.
All comments welcome at feedback@mafiwasta.com
Everything you ever wanted to know about the UAE
Read about some of the worst cases of abuses in the UAE
CSR
Debunking the myth that is corporate social responsibility
Sign the petition for freedom of association in the UAE
"Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dreadful"
Samuel Johnson