Database of Business Ethics
Faculty of Law, Leiden University
What is the situation as regards fundamental labour rights, and how do multinationals deal with them? The Database of Business Ethics team collect codes of conduct from companies worldwide on its publicly accessible website. It also investigates compliance with these codes. The website also contains general information about fundamental labour rights and an overview of the most up-to-date publications on corporate responsibilities and enforcement of fundamental labour rights. Besides the website, a quarterly newsletter is published on “Business Ethics and Labour Rights”. Each issue has a different theme, focusing on current developments in the field of fundamental labour rights and the results of research in Leiden.
As yet, little is known about the number, content, or effectiveness of codes of conduct. Collecting codes, relevant literature, and other information and making all these accessible to the general public, policymakers, academics, and stakeholders such as corporate lawyers and NGOs, means that both users (businesses) and researchers have easy access to a large amount of reliable up-to-date information. This will increase relevant knowledge and thus contribute to compliance with fundamental labour rights.
The team wishes to make the newsletter more professional and to increase its frequency to eight times a year. The website and newsletter will be promoted more effectively, including through more professional use of social media. The grant from the Rewarded! Fund will be used for that purpose.
Websites:
Database of business ethics
Database of business ethics – Newsletters
Coordinator:
Yvonne Erkens, universitair hoofddocent
Other group members:
Paul van der Heijden, hoogleraar
Sarah Vandenbroucke, promovendus
H. Pluut, universitair hoofddocent
Ingeborgh de Koningh, student-assistent
