I. Introduction
The relentless spread of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)Footnote 1 has been exponential, with an alarming number of deathsFootnote 2 putting health systems under severe strain. The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared COVID-19 a pandemicFootnote 3 and health experts cannot predict when a vaccine may be available, or when the spread will slow.
The de facto shutdown of businesses in many countries has crippled the global economy, affecting primary producers in Latin America and Africa, and manufacturing supply chains in Asia. How countries with weak public health infrastructure will cope remains uncertain. Equity markets have tumbled,Footnote 4 trade has collapsed, and in many countries, factories have closed, with millions of workers losing their jobs. Many companies will not survive and the particularly vulnerable include migrant workers,Footnote 5 womenFootnote 6 and the poor.Footnote 7
What should companies do? There is no clear guidance or effective framework for companies about how they should operate during a pandemic. As a result, companies are acting on their own, taking limited steps to protect their workers whose effectiveness has been variable. Some companies have extended their efforts to cover their supply chains, but with no certainty about when the crisis will end, these efforts have remained sporadic and inconsistent. It should also be noted that many companies have been hit hard by the economic downturn, as they lack liquidity; some have filed for bankruptcy and many others lack resources to meet their obligations in the current crisis.Footnote 8
This article examines the corporate responsibility to respect human rights at an extra-ordinary time such as a pandemic. It draws on desk-based research and interviews conducted for a reportFootnote 9 published by the Institute for Human Rights and Business in April 2020. The article identifies the risks identified and associated with the crisis. It then shows emerging good practices and concludes with a call for human rights diligence to guide collective action to mitigate harm in future.
II. What Does Respect for Human Rights Look Like During a Pandemic?
All companies, regardless of size, have the responsibility to respect the human rights of all workers directly employed by them, and they should use their leverage to safeguard the rights of those who work for their suppliers, partners and associates. Beyond that, companies have the responsibility to respect the rights of communities directly affected by them, and of the users and consumers of their goods and services.
Under the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs),Footnote 10 business is expected to undertake due diligence and assess impacts of its operations in terms of respect for all rights; to take all possible steps to mitigate harm; to ensure that its conduct does not cause or contribute towards harm; to address risks identified as salient; and to use its leverage to ensure that the other actors including governments, do not negatively impact rights such as the right to health.Footnote 11 The responsibility to respect becomes more acute when companies operate in contexts where governments are unable to meet their obligations or are unwilling to do so. Companies often do not have mandate, authority, capacity, or expertise to address complex challenges. Nevertheless, they have resources and the ability to act quickly in ways that can safeguard rights during an emergency.
III. Emerging Good Practice – an Overview
Even though there are no rules for what companies are expected to do in a pandemic, and there are no off-the-shelf solutions, companies can learn from one another about what to do and what not to do.
Companies should encourage and enable workers to work from home by providing technology and assistance. While working from home is a sensible policy, not all jobs can be performed from home. Responsibility towards workers incorporates a range of measures including providing safe and sanitary facilities in situations where workers have no choice but to work from an office or another facility besides their homes. It means as well as protecting workers from exposure to the virus, they must offer the necessary tools, including equipment such as face masks and disinfectants for staff members likely to encounter the general public as part of their work. It also means taking reasonable care to protect staff from contracting the virus through direct physical exposure to visitors and customers, such as couriers, delivery workers, cashiers, checkout clerks and pharmacists. Exposed groups which must work on site include farmworkers,Footnote 12 workers in delivery services, and workers for warehouses, hospitals, sewage and cleaning services.Footnote 13
Companies should enable workers to practise social distancing by redesigning the workplace, including dining areas, spacing the use of common areas such as lifts, and recirculating air in offices that are air-conditioned. Companies should cancel non-essential travel. Companies should encourage employees who are sick to stay home and grant exceptional medical leave to those who need it; whether due to their own sickness or due to caregiving responsibilities at home. If companies can no longer operate at full strength and need to lay off staff, they should consider measures such as furloughs, to ensure that the workers in countries without universal healthcare continue to receive healthcare benefits for a limited period.
All companies should make accurate information about health easily and widely available to staff and visitors. User-friendly guidance is available from the WHO,Footnote 14 the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of the United StatesFootnote 15 and the National Health Service (NHS) of the UK.Footnote 16 Companies should act on providing and extending sick leave as appropriate. Some companies are doing it.Footnote 17 However, there have been disturbing reportsFootnote 18 of workers who are sick reporting to work, and companies must discourage them from working while reassuring them of their employment.
Noteworthy are the companies that have implemented these measures before they came to be recognized as good practices. Examples cited in this article are not exhaustive, nor prescriptive, but they illustrate what is possible and practical, and are meant to demonstrate what can and should be done.
A. Caring for Own Employees
Soon after the outbreak, Sky, the British broadcaster, began screening visitorsFootnote 19 at its European offices and barred visitors who may have visited countries that were severely affected by the disease from entering the premises. Andressen Horowitz, a private equity firm, banned physical contact, such as handshakesFootnote 20 in meetings. Chevron was one of the first companies to encourage staff at its London offices to work from home. Later, the Japanese advertising agency Dentsu and Italian fashion brand Armani followed suit.Footnote 21
Walmart took several measuresFootnote 22 including emergency leave policies, increasing pay to hourly-wage workers, providing telehealth facilities, and enhancing sanitary measures at work. Masks and other protective equipment were provided to workers upon request. Target and Amazon increased the pay of their hourly-wage workers. Footnote 23 The Marriott hotel chain, which had to close many of its properties, decided to furlough staff which has continued their health coverage.
Companies such as DHL, UPS and Federal Express with front-line staff that have direct contact with customers, instituted protocols such as not requiring the signature of recipients to avoid physical contact. Other delivery providers such as Amazon, Instacart, Uber EatsFootnote 24 and Ocado offered a no-contact option to staff and customers, where groceries are left at the doorstep of the customer. Some grocers in India who sell foodgrain in bulk are using funnels to fill customers’ bags, to prevent physical contact. Telecom companies like BT, Verizon and Virgin Media increased the pay of their frontline staff.Footnote 25 CVS PharmacyFootnote 26 in the United States has waived charges for home delivery to discourage customers from coming to its pharmacies. Walgreens,Footnote 27 another pharmacy, offers face masks to all employees. In contrast, some companies are not offering face masks to their staff out of concern that it might worry customers.Footnote 28 That is dangerous and wrong, and such companies must stop such practices.
While many companies are engaging their workforce even if they are not unionized, some companies have continued pursuing aggressive tactics to prevent the forming of unions. Amazon in particular, has faced criticismFootnote 29 for dismissing an employeeFootnote 30 because he attempted to organize workers at one of its fulfilment centres. Amazon has disputed the account, saying the action was taken because the worker broke quarantine regulations.
B. Protecting Workers in the Supply Chain
Supply chains are now severely disrupted. While companies should know who their suppliers are in all circumstances (for quality control, and for ensuring compliance with standards, including health and safety), during a health crisis such oversight becomes even more important. Knowing the supply chain removes uncertainties and helps companies to anticipate operational issues that may emerge, as well as take proactive corrective steps to work with suppliers in managing the crisis.
Workers in a company’s supply chain are not direct employees, and do not have the same benefits and rights as the company’s directly employed staff, although they are more vulnerable, with lower wages and benefits and the lack of an adequate social safety net.
Some large companies have committed to continuing to pay vendors and to offer other forms of support even while offices are closed. Some companies are paying their self-employed associates if they need to take time off because of the virus while others are paying small suppliers in advance so they can tide over the liquidity crunch.
MicrosoftFootnote 31 has said it would continue to pay its vendors, including those who service its cafes or drive its vehicles, and offer support to them even while its offices are closed. Hermes Parcelnet, Deliveroo, Uber, and Lyft are paying their self-employed associates if they need to take time off because of the virus. Morrisons, a budget supermarket in the UK, has committedFootnote 32 to paying its suppliers in advance of delivery of goods, to support their financial viability. Unilever has set aside €500m for cash flow relief across its extended value chain, by paying small- and medium-sized suppliers early,Footnote 33 and extending credit to selected small-scale retail customers whose business relies on Unilever.Footnote 34 L’Oréal is paying suppliers earlyFootnote 35 so that they do not go out of business. In contrast, Facebook is offering certain benefits only to its own employees, not its subcontractors,Footnote 36 a practice it should change.
Garment workersFootnote 37 present a particular challenge, and Bangladesh offers a striking example. Some 3.6 million people, of whom 85 per cent are women, work in more than 4,000 garment-exporting factories in Bangladesh. More than half of Bangladesh’s suppliersFootnote 38 have seen many orders cancelled by international buyers. Several buyers are using force majeure clauses and reneging on contracts. In nearly 70% of cancelled orders, buyers have refused to pay for the raw material already bought by suppliers. Bangladesh’s exporters have appealed to their buyers to honour contracts already signed. Workers are in a flux, with factories having suspended production. Three-fifths of the factories in Bangladesh have shut down as a result of the ongoing pandemic.Footnote 39 The situation in CambodiaFootnote 40 is no different, with factory closures risking the jobs of 17,000 workers.
However, H&MFootnote 41 has received praise because it has decided not to invoke force majeure clauses and remains committed to pay for the products it is contracted to buy. More companies should follow H&M’s example.Footnote 42
Where skills match, companies are also taking proactive steps to recruit employees of companies that are laying off staff. Retail, in particular supermarkets, pharmacies and delivery services are expected to have more jobs, just as hotels and airlines are laying people off. Some companies are prioritizing offering work to those furloughed or laid off from shrinking sectors. Amazon, which accounts for 37 per centFootnote 43 of online retail trade in the US, announced it was hiring 100,000 additional workersFootnote 44 to meet rising demand and that it would prioritize recently laid off workers. Walmart, too, is looking for another 150,000 workers.Footnote 45 Several companies have also increased the hourly pay they offer, although not all companies are offering enhanced healthcare or other benefits.
C. Protecting Consumers from Disinformation
With COVID-19 disinformation and conspiracy theories being disseminated online, and dubious cures and unscientific remedies being offered, companies that provide space for user-generated content have additional responsibilities to monitor data online. Some companies have not been able to monitor content closely because their content monitors are not able to work. This has led to arbitrary decisions, with companies relying on artificial intelligence.Footnote 46
Twitter is taking steps to remove disinformation from its service.Footnote 47 Facebook and other social media companies prominently display accurate information on COVID-19. Google has developed a dedicated websiteFootnote 48 to ensure accurate information. However, conspiracy theories continue to be shared on all the media, including instant messaging services like WhatsApp.Footnote 49
D. Redesigning Product Lines
Some companies have redesigned facilities to make urgently needed medical equipment such as surgical masks and ventilators or hand sanitizers. Some hotels, like the Four Seasons in New YorkFootnote 50 and Taj group in Mumbai,Footnote 51 offer free rooms for doctors, nurses and other essential healthcare workers. New Balance,Footnote 52 the sports and apparel company, and Brooks Brothers,Footnote 53 the business outfitters, are making surgical masks. Indian automaker MahindraFootnote 54 and British manufacturer DysonFootnote 55 are making ventilators. Some Bangladeshi garment manufacturers have switched production lines to make personal protective equipment.
Other companies are boosting existing product lines to support relief efforts. Unilever is contributing €100m worth of soap, sanitizers, bleach and food. H&MFootnote 56 has arranged its supply chain to produce personal protective equipment, including masks for Italy and Spain. Companies from different industriesFootnote 57 have offered logistical and service-oriented support to a vast number of civil society groups, communities, local governments and other associations. The contributionsFootnote 58 range from offering cloud-computing support, transportation, products and services, 3D printing, providing data freely, computer time, free access to the internet, producing face masks and surgical masks, making sanitizers, making personal protection equipment including hospital gowns, and suspending rent. In India, Zomato, a food delivery company, has opened a food bankFootnote 59 for daily wage migrant labourers. Other food companiesFootnote 60 too are providing donations. On the technology front, Axial has donated an artificial intelligence-driven platform to the UK’s NHS that automates the analysis of CT scan images in 10 seconds (as opposed to the 30 minutes usually required by doctors). Volunteers from Apple, Amazon and Google helped Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School to design a web-based service,Footnote 61 which allows for immediate reporting.
IV. Conclusion
Companies have made efforted to protect their workers, offered support to workers in the supply chains, taken some measures to assure consumers by providing relief, and retooled their facilities to support global efforts to vanquish the virus. Many of the steps are exemplary. Unfortunately, many companies have failed to live up to expectations. For those companies that have taken positive steps to respect the rights of different stakeholders, various incentives have driven this good corporate behaviour. Many incentives have driven good corporate behaviour, including companies’ own values, codes of conduct, market expectations, societal expectations, desire to adhere to a social contract, and enhance corporate reputation. These are subjective values. If companies undertake human rights due diligence objectively, and identify risks and mitigate them, they will discover that they will meet many of these nebulous goals with greater clarity and consistency.
