Are Codes of Conduct in Global Supply Chains Really Voluntary?

To analyse the legal nature of codes of conduct and their impact on labour and employment law, and to consider the question of whether the regulation of labour relations by norms of commercial, particularly consumer, law is sufficient to guarantee the protection of fundamental social rights, and whether codes of conduct will replace labour and employment law norms within supply chains. Points out that, by shifting its organizational structure from a hierarchy to a network, a firm manages to maintain economic control over the global supply chain without being liable (from a legal point of view) for its social and environmental impact. Examines the advantages to be gained from using consumer law to regulate labour relations within global supply chain, suggesting that the use of consumer law techniques may broaden the circle of people covered by the new norms beyond workers linked to the firm by a contract of employment, and may also broaden the circle of people allowed to take collective action and to create these norms. Explores the risks associated with using consumer law, pointing out that the interests of workers and consumers may sometimes be divergent (if there is a conflict, consumers are more likely to defend their own interests than those of workers), and that there is a risk that rather than covering all labour relations in all supply chains, there will only be regulation of some companies and this will only apply to some rights. Concludes that corporate codes of conduct that are based on consumer law could complement existing labour and employment law in the field of global supply chains but they should not replace labour and employment law. Considers a question that is of growing interest to labour lawyers given the increasing inability of labour law to regulate new organizational forms.