Sir, The Human Rights Watch report referenced in your September 2 article “Groups attacked on US labour practice” reflects a fundamental misunderstanding of international labour standard
Trang 1US laws comply with global fundamental labour rights
Published: September 8 2010 02:43 | Last updated: September 8 2010 02:43
From Ms Ronnie L Goldberg and Mr Randel K Johnson.
Sir, The Human Rights Watch report referenced in your September 2 article “Groups attacked on US labour
practice” reflects a fundamental misunderstanding of international labour standards and US labour law
In the first instance, European Union labour laws do not define international labour standards International Labour
Organization conventions explicitly allow for different national approaches in their application If you follow the logic
of the HRW report, any country that does not apply EU labour law is in violation of international standards This is
sheer nonsense
Second, US labour law is consistent with the principles and policy objectives that underpin the ILO’s fundamental
labour rights The fact that US and EU labour laws differ in technical details does not make US laws “weak”
Finally, US labour law is clear that employees have a right to choose whether to join a labour union There is no
international standard against “discouraging workers from forming unions” Indeed, the ILO recently held that an
employer’s right to freedom of expression and opinion during union organising is consistent with the principles of
freedom of association as they are defined internationally, and confirmed that employers have the right to provide
employees with information that an employee can use to decide whether – or not – to join a union
Ronnie L Goldberg,
Executive Vice-President & Senior Policy Officer, US Council for International Business,
US Employer Member of the ILO Governing Body;
Randel K Johnson,
Senior Vice-President, Labor, Immigration, and Employee Benefits,
US Chamber of Commerce
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