10.03.2003 ET

(CSRwire) Brussels - Ethical Corporation will hold a 2-day conference on November 19-20 2003 in Brussels which will address the improvement of labour standards and human rights in multinational corporations.

The conference on November 19-20 will attempt to provide corporate managers, NGOs and Trade Unions with an overview of policy progress and implementation to date in some of Europe's largest and most progressive companies and organisations.

Over two days on November 19 and 20 the conference, entitled Managing Labour Standards and Human Rights in European companies, will address the business-critical issues for corporations in labour standards and human rights policy development, co-ordination and implementation.

Among the subjects addressed by speakers at the conference will be the business case for raising human rights and labour standards, the key drivers for improvement, corporate planning and implementation of group-wide codes of conduct, social audits of factories and suppliers.

Other areas debated will be encouraging worker education, trade union and NGO partnerships, stakeholder dialogue in overseas factories, and improving conditions with home workers and 'unofficial labour'.

Key performance indicators and management systems will also be discussed along with developing stand-alone human rights policy, case studies of human rights programmes in developing countries, and working with governments and the military in overseas markets to ensure higher standards.

Speakers include: Learn from world class speakers at: The ILO, BP, European Commission, Carrefour, Levi Strauss, Novo Nordisk, Hennes & Mauritz, Gap, Chiquita, ABB, Save the Children, Statoil, Premier Oil, BASF, Insight investment, Allianz-Dresdner, International Alert, Amnesty International, the ETI, the Workers Rights Consortium, the Central American Women's Network, The International Union of Foodworkers, and many others.

Experts and consultants in the field will run break-out discussion and workshop sessions alongside the main conference to allow for more in-depth debate on the key issues.

A full-day training workshop run by the Corporate Citizenship Unit of Warwick Business School will also take place on November 21 on human rights management.

Corporate and NGO / Union representatives will therefore be able to take three full days of practical learning away from the conference.

More details on the programme for the conference are online at www.ethicalcorp.com/labour2003.

The conference is part of a series organised by Ethical Corporation around the world.

Ethical Corporation conferences focus on good practice in corporate citizenship and responsibility management within large multi-national business.

Other events scheduled for 2004 include conferences on stakeholder dialogue and reporting, Europe's food supply chain and corporate responsibility for US healthcare companies.

More details on upcoming 2004 events can be found at www.ethicalcorps.com/events.

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