The RSCA programme, through the implementation of the recommendations of the ILO MNE Declaration, promotes the use of leverage of Multinational Enterprises to encourage business partners and suppliers along their supply chains to put in place socially responsible labour practices as a way to comply with international labour standards, local labour legislations, become more competitive and productive, and access new markets. In addition, the programme promotes the increase of knowledge and understanding on CSR vs RBC as a genuine inclusion of socially responsible labour practices along the corporate operations of companies.

This regional programme is making an impact in a number of areas, through the following actions:

• Fostering policy dialogue between the private sector and government institutions on strategies to establish an enabling environment for the implementation and promotion of socially responsible business practices.
• Training sessions where leading representatives from employer organisations, academia and worker’s organisations acquire concrete knowledge on RBC from the perspective of labour.
• Engaging workers organisations in discussions to identify the challenges of implementing good labour practices in global supply chains and identify opportunities to make concrete improvements in this area of work.
• Promoting the exchange of experiences and good practices at the sub-regional level in terms of the implementation of mechanisms to put in place socially responsible labour practices.

This regional forum will aim to mainly build the capacity of trade union organisations, with the following objectives:

• Enable workers and unions to strategically use international instruments in the field of Responsible Business Conduct (RBC) (ILO MNE Declaration, OECD Guidelines on MNEs and the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights)
• Advocate for the role of workers and Trade Unions in the implementation of policies and principles in these three instruments. Including their role in the process of promoting human rights due diligence, in the pillar of remedy of the UNGPs, and in the context of grievances mechanisms.
• Provide an opportunity for the participants to share main challenges and good practices in relation to engaged dialogue and collective bargaining with MNEs in Global Supply Chains
• Identify concrete actions to be implemented jointly in the framework of the Responsible Supply Chains in Asia programme
• Contribute to increasing capacity of constituents to provide adequate labour protection to workers in diverse forms of work arrangements, including on digital labour platforms, and in the informal economy

Agenda

(Bangkok Time) 
14:00 – 14:25
Opening remarks
Ms. Chihoko Asada-Miyakawa, Regional Director, ILO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific, Bangkok

Key note speeches
Ms Maria Helena Andre, ILO ACTRAV, Geneva
Ms Madelaine Tuininga, Head of Unit Trade and Sustainable Development at DG TRADE, European Commission,
Mr. Blake Harwell, Senior Policy Advisor, OECD/TUAC Ms. Vongai Masocha. Specialist on CSR/RBC and Labour Law, MULTI Unit, ENTERPRISES Department, ILO.

14:30 - 14.50
Session 1: Challenges and trends in global supply chains in the process of the COVID pandemic: How to promote socially responsible labour practices and labour rights – Mr Ariel Castro, Asia Desk Officer, ILO ACTRAV

Q & A

14:50-15:30 Session 2: presentation on international instruments and policy coherence among international instrument on RBC

• UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. Mr. Surya Deva, UNWGBHR
• The ILO MNE Declaration. Ms. Githa Roelans, ILO
• OECD MNE Guidelines – Mr. Nicolas Hachez, Acting Manager of the National Contact Points, OECD UNWGBHR/ILO/OECD/

16:00 -17:10

Room 1: Collective bargaining, Unionisation, Global Framework Agreements

Room 2:
Due diligence, including changing patterns in the WoW and the COVID impact (OSH, informality, gig economy)

Room 3:
Access to remedy

17:10 – 17:35

Feedback from each roundtable
Q&A Pong-Sul Ahn

17:35 – 17:50 Key points of the workshop and next steps
Fredy Guayacan

17:50 - 18:00 Closing remarks
Ms Githa Roelans, Director, ILO Multinational Enterprises and Enterprise Engagement Unit
Ms Maria Helena Andre, Director, ILO ACTRAV