ECOP backs UN call on Global Compact Initiative

The Employers Confederation of the Philippines (ECOP) has committed to support the call of United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan on the Global Compact Initiative (GCI).

In a letter to International Organization of Employers (IOE) president Francois Perigot, ECOP president Donald G. Dee stated: "We, in ECOP, commit ourselves to support, within the limits of our national laws and respectful of our local culture and differing business capacities, the promotion and implementation of the nine principles contained in the Compact."

The nine core universal principles contained in the compact and adopted by most United Nations members urge business to:

• support and respect the protection of internationally proclaimed human rights;

• ensure they are not complicit in human rights abuses;

• updated freedom of association and the effective recognition of the right to collective bargaining;

• eliminate all forms of forced and compulsory labor;

• uphold the effective abolition of child labor;

• eliminate discrimination in respect of employment and occupation;

• support a precautionary approach to environment challenges;

• promote greater environmental responsibility; and

• encourage the development and diffusion of environmentally-friendly technologies.

The global compact is not a legal instrument, it is aspirational. By accepting it, a company states that it is prepared to work towards the achievement of its objectives.

ECOP officially launched the GCI in the Philippines last September when it organized a high-level forum. The forum brought together about a hundred CEOs and industry leaders. There, with the support of speakers – from the Global Compact Office, International Labor Organization (ILO), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI) and three model companies – as well as of IOE (through a letter of Antonio Peñalosa read to the audience), ECOP presented and clarified toits fellows in the business community what Global Compact is and is not, drew out their preliminary suggestions on how to make operative the nine principles in the Philippines and encouraged their commitment to future actions.

Dee related that after the launching of the compact, ECOP seriously took steps to promote and implement the nine principles through:

• constitution of the GCI National Steering Committee with 22 key people from members of the ECOP Board and from the corporations and industries that were present during the launch;

• formulation of the GCI National Strategy during the first Steering Committee – essentially to bring the campaign to the key regions of the country, stir greater awareness among employers and other stakeholders the importance of GCI and provide a corporate face to the campaign by documenting and showcasing best practices of GCI model companies;

• consistent with the formulated national strategy, ECOP decided during the second Steering Committee meeting to launch a culture-sensitive tri-media campaign on GCI and to adopt Global Compact as a central theme in the 23rd National Conference and Exhibition of Employers (NCEE XXIII) set on May 30 and 31 of this year at the Westin Philippine Plaza.

Moreover, Dee said ECOP and the members of the GCI steering committing are all involved in the preparation of NCEE XXIII on the theme, "Global Compact Initiative, Reaching Out and Making It Work," which employers consider different compared with earlier conferences inasmuch as non-business stakeholders are being invited this time around.

The NCE XXIII organizing committee is chaired by Isabelita S. Palanca, president of the Women’s Business Council Philippines, and co-chaired by ECOP vice president Aniana G. Bagabaldo and Feliciano L. Torres, president of Yazaki-Torres Manufacturing, Inc.

According to Palanca, this year’s conference is organized to encourage Philippine companies to adopt the GCI and to give birth and institutionalize a dialogue among all stakeholders through the establishment of locally-based multisectoral committees.