Labour Rights as Corporate Social Responsibility: The Labour Rights Practices of Norwegian Companies in the United Arab Emirates

Abstract

Norwegian companies are known as front-runners within Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). This master´s thesis analyses whether seven Norwegian subsidiaries in the United Arab Emirates, through their CSR practices, have labour rights standards that go above local requirements. It examines three area of labour rights; Health, Safety and Environment, labour conditions and the right to organise, bargain collectively and strike. The findings show that the subsidiaries do go above local standards in all of the labour rights areas mentioned. The explanatory factor for the practices is internal steering by the parent companies in Norway. Two other examined explanatory factors, the Norwegian CSR policy as exercised by the Norwegian Embassy in the UAE and the Norwegian CSR policy as exercised by the Innovation Norway office in the UAE, did not influence the subsidiaries´s CSR practices in the area of labour rights. The two public institutions try to influence the subsidiaries through governance of persuasion. They lack the hierarchical authority that the parent companies have. An implication of my findings is that regarding labour rights, more efforts should be done to promote CSR among Norwegian parent companies in Norway.