Labour rights as human rights : workers' safety at work in Australian-based supply chains

The increase of buyer-driven supply chains, outsourcing and other forms of non-traditional employment has resulted in challenges for labour market regulation. One business model which has created substantial regulatory challenges is supply chains. The supply chain model involves retailers purchasing products from brand corporations who then outsource the manufacturing of the work to traders who contract with factories or outworkers who actually manufacture the clothing and textiles. This business model results in time and cost pressures being pushed down the supply chain which has resulted in sweatshops where workers systematically have their labour rights violated. Literally millions of workers work in dangerous workplaces where thousands are killed or permanently disabled every year. This thesis has analysed possible regulatory responses to provide workers a right to safety and health in supply chains which provide products for Australian retailers. This thesis will use a human rights standard to determine whether Australia is discharging its human rights obligations in its approach to combating domestic and foreign labour abuses. It is beyond this thesis to analyse Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) laws in every jurisdiction. Accordingly, this thesis will focus upon Australian domestic laws and laws in one of Australia’s major trading partners, the Peoples’ Republic of China (China). It is hypothesised that Australia is currently breaching its human rights obligations through failing to adequately regulate employees’ safety at work in Australian-based supply chains. To prove this hypothesis, this thesis will adopt a three- phase approach to analysing Australia’s regulatory responses. Phase 1 will identify the standard by which Australia’s regulatory approach to employees’ health and safety in supply chains can be judged. This phase will focus on analysing how workers’ rights to safety as a human right imposes a moral obligation on Australia to take reasonablely practicable steps regulate Australian-based supply chains. This will form a human rights standard against which Australia’s conduct can be judged. Phase 2 focuses upon the current regulatory environment. If existing regulatory vehicles adequately protect the health and safety of employees, then Australia will have discharged its obligations through simply maintaining the status quo. Australia currently regulates OHS through a combination of ‘hard law’ and ‘soft law’ regulatory vehicles. The first part of phase 2 analyses the effectiveness of traditional OHS laws in Australia and in China. The final part of phase 2 then analyses the effectiveness of the major soft law vehicle ‘Corporate Social Responsibility’ (CSR). The fact that employees are working in unsafe working conditions does not mean Australia is breaching its human rights obligations. Australia is only required to take reasonably practicable steps to ensure human rights are realized. Phase 3 identifies four regulatory vehicles to determine whether they would assist Australia in discharging its human rights obligations. Phase 3 then analyses whether Australia could unilaterally introduce supply chain regulation to regulate domestic and extraterritorial supply chains. Phase 3 also analyses three public international law regulatory vehicles. This chapter considers the ability of the United Nations Global Compact, the ILO’s Better Factory Project and a bilateral agreement to improve the detection and enforcement of workers’ right to safety and health.

Environmental affairs enforcement report

This is a list of actions taken against businesses that are not in compliance with environmental regulations including underground storage tanks, hazardous waste, drinking water, water pollution and solid waste. It is broken down by enforcement by various divisions of DHEC including the Bureau of Land and Waste Management, Bureau of Water, Bureau of Air Quality, Bureau of Environmental Health Services and Division of Ocean and Coastal Resource Management.

Environmental affairs enforcement report

This is a list of actions taken against businesses that are not in compliance with environmental regulations including underground storage tanks, hazardous waste, drinking water, water pollution and solid waste. It is broken down by enforcement by various divisions of DHEC including the Bureau of Land and Waste Management, Bureau of Water, Bureau of Air Quality, Bureau of Environmental Health Services and Division of Ocean and Coastal Resource Management.

Información de moluscos y mariscos : Norma 61-25: Establecimientos de ventas de alimentos

This Spanish language sheet explains SC regulation 61-25 dealing with retail food establishments and shellfish. It also has a daily shellstock receiving record that can be used by restaurants for record keeping.

Summary of Charter Fishing Laws 2015-2016

Each year the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources publishes a summary of the laws and regulations of commercial fishing in the state. This publication provides the license requirements, definitions, restrictions, and laws and regulations for the use of charter fishing laws.

Free coinage of silver : speech of Hon. William Elliott, of South Carolina, in the House of Representatives, Thursday, February 13, 1896 [Pamphlet]

This speech is given to the United States House of Representatives. Hon. William Elliot gives a persuasive argument for why he will be voting against the senate amendment for free coinage of silver. He defines free coinage of silver and he describes fifty-cent dollar. He discusses the fall in the price of products and provides causation.

Physical access for persons with disabilities

For persons with disabilities, the activities that able-bodied people take for granted can be major, often insurmountable challenges. Attempting to enter a restaurant for lunch with friends can result in lengthy and adversarial litigation if the facility is not accessible to a person with a disability or other mobility impairment. This litigation would be initiated after the individual was effectively refused service; a refusal based on hislher personal physical characteristics. If a shopping mall is not equipped with "access amenities", then the disabled person may be excluded from shopping there and thus exercising consumer freedom. If workplaces are not equipped to accommodate the access needs of persons with disabilities, then those people are effectively barred from gainful employment there. If a municipal goveniment building is inaccessible to disabled persons, then they may be excluded from participating in council meetings. These are all activities that the majority of the population enjoys as a matter of course, in that they represent the functions of a free citizen in a free society. If a person is excluded from such activities because of some personal characteristic, then that person is subjected to differential or discr~minatory treatment. The guarantees provided in Canadian feden! and provincial rights legislation, are such that people are not to be discriminated againsL Where buildings and facilities othen\iise open to the public are not accessible for persens with disabilities, then those people are being discriminated against. To challenge these discriminatory practices, individuals initiate complaints through the administrative justice system. To address the extent to which this is a problem, many sources were consulted. Constitutional lawyers, tribunal members, advocates for the disabled and land use planners were interviewed. Case law and legislation were reviewed. Literature on citizenship theory, dispute resolution and dispute avoidance was compiled and assessed. And, the field of land use planning was analyzed (drawing on the WTiter's educational and experiential background) as a possible alternative method for effecting systemic access for persons with disabilities. The conclusion of this study is that there does exist a proactive method for assuring access, a method that can apply the systemic remedy needed to deal with this problem. The current method, which is an adversarial and piecemeal complaint process, has proven ineffective in remedying this discrimination problem~ Failure to provide an appropriate remedy means that persons with disabilities will not enjoy the degree of citizen status enjoyed by the able-bodied. This is the current circumstance, and since equity is the aim of rights legislation, and since such legislative and administrative frameworks have failed in that purpose, then an alternative method is necessary. An alternative model is the one in which land use planning is based. It has conflict avoidance and conflict minimization as underpinnings. And, most importantly, land use planning is already a proyen method of combatting discrimination.

Corporal punishment : understanding the debate in Canada

There has been considerable debate over whether corporal punishment against children should be prohibited in Canada. Various organizations, most notably the Canadian Foundation for Children, Youth and the Law, have argued that the Canadian Government should ban the use of corporal punishment by repealing the specific section of the Canadian Criminal Code that provides parents with a legal defence to use corporal punishment against their children; this provision is outlined in Section 43 of the Criminal Code. Recently, the Canadian Foundation for Children, Youth and the Law challenged the constitutionality of Section 43 before the Supreme Court of Canada. The organization claimed Section 43 is unconstitutional. It violates children's Charter rights, such as the right to security of a person (Section 7), the right to be protected from cruel and unusual treatment (Section 12), and denies children the same protection adults receive under the law. Both the Canadian government and the Supreme Court of Canada reject the Foundation's arguments. Examining the federal government and the judicial system's rationale for refusing to remove Section 43 of the Canadian Criminal Code discloses how the parent-child relationship is perceived. This thesis examines how the parent-child relationship is perceived by the Canadian government and the issues that arise from such a view. This examination is essential for the comprehension of why Canada's corporal punishment law was enacted and remains in effect today.

Consumo de tabaco en el lugar de trabajo: interacciones entre fumadores y no fumadores respecto al cumplimiento de la normativa

Aprofitant l'aparició de la nova llei sobre la prohibició de fumar en els espais laborals, exposen els resultats d'una investigació en que s'analitzaven les interaccions entre fumadors i no fumadors, les diferents reaccions

L'Explotació d'audiovisuals i la gestió de drets d'autor en els establiments hotelers

Estudi sobre el tractament de la propietat intel•lectual i els drets d’autor en el sector turístic hotelera, amb l’objectiu d’esbrinar com funciona aquesta gestió. S’incideix més en l´’us de les televisions en les habitacions d’hotel, i en quins criteris utilitzen les entitats de gestió per exigir aquest dret. Es proposen alternatives als establiments hotelers a partir dels criteris dels tribunals

El PEIN a les comarques gironines: una visió geogràfica

El Pla d’Espais d’Interès Natural (PEIN) és una figura de planificació contemplada per la Llei 12/1985 d’espais naturals del Parlament de Catalunya. Cal assenyalar que el 1989 ja es va produir una primera exposició pública, en el transcurs de la qual el pla va patir fortes pressions, sobretot provinents d’associacions lligades al món rural, ja que són les més afectades per l’aprovació del pla, fet que va provocar el desenvolupament d’una nova versió presentada el setembre de 1992