The panel on Human Rights at the CEBDS 2019 Seminar, held on the 5th in São Paulo, aimed at associates and partners, featured the participation of Rosane Santos (Nissan), Denise Hill (Natura), Alvaro Lorenz (Votorantim Cimentos), Juana Kweitel (Conectas) and was moderated by Marcos Bicudo, CEO of Vedacit and Chair of CEBDS.
“The issue of human rights will be resolved when everyone can look at the world from this perspective and see how the world would be a better place. Brazil is currently the leader in income concentration, which deepens the social divide,” says Marcus Bicudo, CEO of Vedacit.
One of the aspects of human rights that has received attention from CEBDS concerns the underrepresentation of women and black people in companies, politics and the public sector in general. Mainly with regard to corporate responsibility, given the economic influence of these organizations. A survey by Global Justice Now concludes that, of the 100 largest economic organizations in the world, 31 are States and 69 are multinationals.
Therefore, it is up to companies to make commitments to benefits society, in addition to practices that allow business management in order to minimize negative impacts and enhance positive impacts.
Human rights in companies encompass a broad spectrum, starting with internal HR policies that involve diversity, inclusion, equity and the achievement of benefits. Experience has shown that such practices are reflected both in the social interactions of employees in their personal and professional environments and in the impacts generated by the companies' business.
“Companies need to understand their role in society, which goes far beyond managing organizations and maintaining our commercial relationships. We occupy an important space and we need a more refined understanding of how we can impact our surroundings,” said Rosane Santos, Sustainability Manager at Nissan.
Regarding the “uberization” of work relations, Rosane Santos highlighted: “The big question regarding this new form of work is associated with our behavior. We are the users: what social risk are we willing to take? How long will I prioritize satisfying my needs at the lowest cost over the quality of life of others?”
Such impacts can be directly reflected, for example, in the activities and income of a community, in health and well-being. They can also be indirect, such as the overloading of urban infrastructure as a result of migratory flows or arising from business relationships with suppliers.
At CEBDS, the management of the social impact of companies' activities is addressed through several initiatives conducted in partnership with its member companies. Topics related to diversity and inclusion, social license to operate, better working conditions, among others, have been addressed in numerous actions, such as events, publications and discussion forums. Activities related to the topic go beyond identifying negative impacts on each of the groups involved, and seek to transform risks into opportunities.
Labor relations, for example, are one of the strategic pillars, since each employee is a multiplier for the company. At the same time, CEBDS seeks to offer more comprehensive assessment views through the exchange of experiences among its member companies.
Human Rights on the CEBDS Agenda
The proposals of business leaders associated with CEBDS for the area of human rights are gathered in the document CEBDS Agenda for a Sustainable Country, launched during last year's presidential elections and delivered to each of the candidates.
The document advocates constant and official monitoring of gender and race representation in politics and public power, allowing for the assessment of the effectiveness of policies that encourage the qualification, participation and balanced remuneration of women and black people. In addition, it proposes the search for mechanisms that ensure greater transparency in gender and race representation in public administration, promoting greater equity.
Brazil faces a major challenge by 2030 to achieve targets 5,546 and 10,247 of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 5, which deals with Gender Equality, and 10, on Reducing Inequalities.
To achieve these goals, it is extremely important that the National Congress approves proposals and that the Executive Branch adopts policies that promote the inclusion of women and black people in politics and the public sector. The objective is to increase the diversity and representation of this segment of the population in decision-making, policy formulation and implementation.
In this way, such practices would encourage companies to adopt affirmative actions to reduce inequalities in their workforce, encouraging the presence of women and black people, especially in positions of greater responsibility.
“Two principles that greatly help companies to act on human rights: due diligence and the creation of mechanisms to hear complaints. We need to have more empathy for the situation of others,” Juana Kweitel, executive director of Conectas.
The CEBDS Agenda proposes that a platform with updated data on the profile of its civil servants be maintained on the Federal Government's Transparency Portal. This would allow the entire population to monitor how the Brazilian government is advancing and adapting to the goals of reducing inequalities, especially those related to gender and race. Likewise, the document states that companies must commit to maintaining public data on their social profiles so that everyone can monitor whether there is progress towards the SDGs.
There are currently around 35 proposals being processed in the National Congress that aim to increase the participation of women and black people in politics and public administration, the majority of which are through quotas or other forms of incentives. Of these, 10 have a high impact, that is, if approved they would have direct effects on reducing inequalities.
No project, however, addresses the maintenance of open data by the federal government on the occupation of public positions and their remuneration, based on gender and race, which reiterates the relevance of the proposal contained in the CEBDS Agenda, whose main objective is to seek to reduce gender and racial inequalities in the labor market.
Data proves low diversity
Data collected by the Ethos Institute indicate that the percentage of men and women and of whites and blacks in the job market also varies according to job title and position. A study on the social, racial and gender profile of the 500 largest companies in Brazil revealed that women are the majority in lower-level positions: 55.9% among apprentices and 58.9% among interns. However, they are a significant minority in higher-level positions, occupying only 13.6% of the executive staff of companies (president, vice-president and director).
The racial situation is even worse: the presence of black people at the apprentice level is 57.5%, compared to 4.7% in the executive staff, evidencing an intense inequality between whites and blacks, as the level of hierarchy increases.
The scenario is similar in the public sector. A recent survey conducted by the National School of Public Administration (Enap) showed that women accounted for 43% of civil servants working in the direct administration of the Federal Executive, while men accounted for 57%. The percentage of women decreases as the number of Senior Management and Advisory (DAS) positions increases. In 2014, female civil servants occupied 45% of DAS 1 positions, 36% of DAS 4 positions, 28% of DAS 5 positions, and only 19% of DAS 6 positions. The percentage of women holding DAS 6 positions, the highest paid, did not has been evolving since 2004.
CEO Guide to Human Rights
In June, CEBDS launched the CEO Guide to Human Rights, an initiative of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development that involves 35 large companies, present in 17 countries and responsible for generating 2.8 million jobs, in addition to moving extensive supply chains in various sectors of industry.
