Worker-less social responsibility: How the proliferation of voluntary labour governance tools in seafood marginalise the workers they claim to protect

Decker Sparks, Jessica L.; Matthews, Lee; Cárdenas, Daniel; Williams, Chris

Abstract

In response to labour and human rights violations onboard fishing vessels, the private sector is increasingly relying on market-based solutions in the form of voluntary, non-governmental social governance tools to improve working conditions for fishers. While the proliferation of these tools is relatively recent in fishing, there is substantial evidence from other sectors that these voluntary standards fail to transform working conditions. Yet, there remains an insistence on using market-based solutions to mitigate labour abuses in fishing despite the problem being a market failure. Using a human and labour-rights based analytical paradigm that underpins worker-centric processes, we constructed objective criteria to assess several voluntary standards against. Failing to include workers and commit to meaningful remedy, findings from the analysis suggests these voluntary non-governmental social governance tools are not able to ensure that human and labour rights are respected in a way that is consistent with state and international regulation or rigorous human rights due diligence. As a result, there is an urgent need for a transformational shift in the sector away from a worker-less reactive and adaptive corporate social responsibility strategy of doing less harm toward a fundamental commitment to redistributing power through a worker-driven social responsibility paradigm.

Citation

Decker Sparks, J. L., Matthews, L., Cárdenas, D., & Williams, C. (2022). Worker-less social responsibility: How the proliferation of voluntary labour governance tools in seafood marginalise the workers they claim to protect. Marine Policy, 139, Article 105044. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpol.2022.105044

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Mar 16, 2022
• Online Publication Date: Mar 26, 2022
• Publication Date: May 1, 2022
• Deposit Date: Mar 28, 2022
• Publicly Available Date: Apr 21, 2022
• Journal: Marine Policy
• Print ISSN: 0308-597X
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 139
• Article Number: 105044
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpol.2022.105044
• Keywords: Law; Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law; Economics and Econometrics; General Environmental Science; Aquatic Science
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/7675318
• Publisher URL: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0308597X22000914?via%3Dihub