A regulação das cadeias produtivas na perspectiva dos direitos humanos trabalhistas

Abstract

The phenomenon of supply chains, in the context of capitalist globalization, has expanded the freedom of trade since the end of the 20th century, in an environment of transnational capital, deregulation of markets, structural crisis, and inequalities between central and peripheral capitalist countries. In this scenario, serious violations of labor human rights have begun to occur in supply chains, mainly in countries of the Global South, where the stages of production that demand the intensive use of workers are located, hired by dependent companies, with low wages and precarious working conditions predominating. Traditional state regulatory instruments have not been sufficient for monitoring and eradicating labor human rights violations evidenced by forced labor, child labor, and serious workplace accidents at the peripheral base of production chains. Cases of forced labor, child labor, and workplace accidents are presented to reinforce the need to overcome the unregulated model of supply chains and to establish a new regulatory perspective: the adoption of Economic Regulation of Production Chains through Corporate Instruments (RECPIS), aiming to contribute to a change in the regulatory environment that leads to the effective traceability of production chains by dominant companies, as well as their accountability in case of violations of labor human rights at any link in the chain. For the aforementioned regulation, the following complementary possibilities are presented: a) the implementation of the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and Human Rights Due Diligence; b) the application of corporate governance and transparency instruments to dominant companies, in light of the social interest principle foreseen in the Brazilian Corporations Law; c) the involvement of the Labor Prosecutor's Office in the regulation of production chains.