Workers in Turkey and across the globe need enforceable rights, safe and fair working conditions and the freedom to organise collectively. That’s why SPOT is collaborating with Labour Behind the Label, in supporting the Corporate Justice Coalition’s call for new Business, Human Rights and Environment Act, which would hold companies legally responsible over practises that harm communities, workers and the environment.
This week SPOT members and speakers from Turkey and beyond joined campaigners from across the UK for a series of events and a mass lobby of parliament organised by Good Business Matters.
On Monday 19 October, Özlem Temena, freelance investigative journalist and researcher for BİRTEK-SEN, joined an international roundtable at SOAS University of London to discuss the experiences of textile workers in Türkiye and how UK legislation could help tackle abuses in global supply chains. At the “Preventing and remedying corporate harm: The need for a mandatory human rights and environmental due diligence law in the UK” event Özlem highlighted the plight of workers seeking recognition in factories, the forced overtime and routine abuses experienced by women workers unable to speak out. She also highlighted the work that BİRTEK-SEN is doing to organise workers in the textiles and leather industries to defend their rights, improve working conditions and remove barriers to trade union organising.
The roundtable brought these experiences into conversation with the work of Labour Behind the Label, a UK campaign organisation working to improve conditions and defend the rights of workers in the global garment industry. Working with Labour Behind the Label, SPOT (Solidarity with the People of Turkey) helped connect the demands of workers in Turkey with the campaign for stronger corporate accountability in the UK.
At the heart of this campaign is the proposed Business, Human Rights and Environment Act, championed by the Corporate Justice Coalition. This blueprint for a new UK law would establish a legal duty on companies and public bodies to prevent human rights abuses and environmental harm linked to their activities and supply chains.
SPOT representatives joined the mass lobby on Wednesday 21 October, where more than 200 people joined the Good Business Matters mass lobby in Westminster, calling on MPs to take action and support stronger laws to protect people and the environment from corporate harm.
Many trade unions, companies and campaign have joined forces to call for corporate accountability backed by enforceable law. International solidarity is essential to making that happen.