UNICEF urges companies to protect children’s rights

The exploitation of children is mindlessly prevalent:  their being sold for sex, their being trained as soldiers to maim and kill the enemy, their diving in the deep sea as muro-ami divers and scavengers for gold nuggets, their working in coffee plantations, their being household slaves to  pay for their fathers’ debts, their being made to work till their bodies ache, in commercial storehouses. 

What a blessing that efforts are being made by organizations and certain individuals to put an end to children’s exploitation  due to adults’ greed.

In this  light UNICEF (United Nations Children’s Fund) in partnership with the Makati Business Club (MBC), recently launched the Children’s Rights and Business Principles (CRBP) to members of the Philippine business community.

Invited to the launch were  top business executives including Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala, Hans T. Sy, Edgar Chua, and officers of the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Management Association of the Philippines. 

The CRBP is “the first comprehensive set of principles to guide private sector companies on the full range of actions they can take in the workplace, marketplace and community in respect and support  of children’s rights. While the business and human rights agenda has evolved significantly in recent years, a child rights perspective has not yet been sufficiently addressed,” said UNICEf Philippines representative Lotta Sylwander.

The CRBP were released in 2012 in London, and this year, in Manila, to introduce companies to incorporate a child rights’ lens to their business practices.

Sylwander said that children under the age of 18 account for almost a third of the world’s population, hence, “it is inevitable that businesses, whether small or large, will have an effect on the lives of children,  both directly and indirectly. “Children are affected by businesses in a variety of ways – as consumers, as members of employees’ families, as future employees themselves and eventual business leaders. They also live in the communities and share the environments in which businesses operate.”

In the Philippines, said Sylwander, companies “are beginning to rethink their business practices not to respect – doing the minimum required to avoid infringing on children’s rights, but to support – taking voluntary actions  that seek to advance the realization of children’s rights.”

Ten CRBP principles have been set out, among them respecting and supporting children’s human rights; ensuring that products and services are safe; using marketing and  advertising that respect and support their rights, and helping protect children affected by emergencies.

An example of UNICEF and SM Supermarkets partnership is the latter’s  requirement of all salt vendors of the SM Supermarket group to submit a quarterly certificate of analysis using the desired level of iodization whose iodine content is an essential nutrient for brain development.

In his speech at the launch of the CRBP,  Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala spoke of children’s rights and welfare being integrated in the Ayala Group of Companies’ business models. These include Manila water’s special program to benefit low-income families; designing green spaces in real estate projects that ensure a family and child-friendly environment; Globe working with UNICEF and government agencies against online child sexual abuses; having a chain of community-based  clinics called Family DOC, and offering Affordable Private Education Center secondary schools that enhance employability of students. Its Ayala Young Leaders Congress and  Bangsamoro Young Leaders Program-Leadership Communities develop youth leaders for principled leadership that benefit society and the nation.

“The launch of the CRBP reminds us of the tremendous capacity – and in fact, the responsibility – of business to effect positive change in society. Businesses cannot operate in a vacuum, without thinking of social concerns,” Zobel de Ayala said.

The Ayala Group, he said, is looking at the possibility of undergoing training on the CRBP, including more comprehensive and transparent reporting on what we do to uphold children’s rights. This dovetails perfectly  with our recent shift to integrated reporting which goes beyond financial result to also capture the broader impact we have on society, the environment, and the economy.”

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Studies  and stories tell us  that working from one’s home can be as productive as working in the office. Two of good results of the system are enabling the worker to be close to the family, and, with substantial numbers of people working  from  home, traffic congestion is reduced.

My physicist neighbor’s son, Niko, a recent  architecture graduate, works for a reputable architectural firm. He draws designs, submits them to his boss,  gets assignments, and is paid  via the computer – without stepping out of the house, and  reeling from  the  snail-paced  and smoke-belching traffic and the heat.

My friend Daph edits articles and manuscripts for United Nations agencies  from  the third floor of her house – away from the madding crowd. My daughter-in-law  transcribes  in her bedroom-cum-office  prescriptions  of  medical doctors  in California, and my niece writes in the dining room, reports and articles for companies in the US  via the computer too , both of them  paid in dollars.

The good news is that  the Senate has approved, on third and final reading, a bill that encourages companies to adopt a work from home program for employees. This is Senate Bill No. 1363 or the Telecommuting Act of 2017, which was approved with 22 affirmative votes, zero negative vote, and zero abstention. The proposed law was authored by Senators Joel Villanueva and Cynthia Villar.

The bill defines telecommuting  “as the partial or total substitution of computer or telecommunication technologies, or both, for the commute to work by employees.”

Villanueva, chair of the Senate committee on labor, employment and human resources development, said the measure would ease the worsening traffic situation in urban areas by allowing employees to work at home. He also said the measure also seeks to protect the rights of the home-based workers by ensuring that they have  equal pay, leave benefits and rights to promotion as their counterparts in offices.

According to the former TESDA (Technological  Education and Skills Development Authority) head, the Employers Confederation of the Philippines reported that there has been a growing acceptance of telecommuting in workplaces such as Meralco, SGS Philippines, Inc., Metro Pacific Investments Corp. and Aboitiz Equity Ventures. In 2016, the Department of Labor and Employment also reported that 261 companies have employees under the voluntary flexible arrangements.

The proposed law, said Villanueva, will not be mandatory, but give the employers the discretion on whether to offer telecommuting to their workers or not. 

Hopefully, the bill will become law immediately.

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