Building back better: Integrating human rights into COVID-19 measures

Guidance for companies

Across the world, COVID-19 continues to threaten the economic security of workers and the ability of businesses to keep operating. It also presents new challenges and opportunities for businesses to respect human rights.

Respecting human rights can be challenging in situations like a pandemic where numerous, and at times, conflicting human rights need to be considered. To guide Canadian companies, we have developed factsheets to help identify how responses to COVID-19 can impact human rights negatively in the context of business operations, and options that prevent, mitigate, and account for identified impacts.

These factsheets are based on United Nations Guiding Principles (UNGP) on Business and Human Rights and OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises, which were developed to reflect international human rights obligations. When companies are developing initiatives and measures to contain COVID-19 and to allow for business continuity, they need to consider human rights risks and adopt a gender-responsive approach--one that consider the particular needs of and challenges faced by historically marginalized groups, including Indigenous Peoples, women, girls, and LGBTQI persons of various intersecting identities such as ethnicity and race.

Examples of how COVID-19 & response measures may impact human rights

Some company responses to COVID-19 developments and government policies implemented to contain the infectious disease have infringed on human rights and impacted certain communities more than others. In addition, a number of ongoing human rights concerns have worsened or have been neglected in the context of COVID-19 as company responses focus on COVID-19.

We have identified some examples of human rights concerns that have emerged in the context of COVID-19, and what companies can do to avoid or mitigate them.

• Discrimination
• Slavery, forced labour
• Just and favourable pay and work conditions
• Freedom of Assembly, Expression, Information
• Privacy
• Health, Environment, Livelihoods
• Indigenous Peoples’ Rights
• Gender Equality and the rights of women, girls, and LGBTQI persons

Additional resources

Key sources to help identify relevant human rights impacts associated with COVID-19 and help guide the development of measures to address them include:

• United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). (2020). COVID-19 Guidance.
• Business and Human Rights Resource Centre. (2020). COVID-19 tracker: Monitoring industry responses, government actions and workers’ demands during the COVID-19 pandemic.
• UN Women. (2017). Women’s Empowerment Principles gender gap analysis tool (a tool to help companies identify strengths, gaps, and opportunities to improve their performance on gender equality.)
• United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Human rights due diligence Rapid self-assessment for business. 
• International Labour Organization (ILO)’s Work Action Checklist and family-friendly policies and other good workplace practices.
• World Health Organization guidance for the workplace.
• Business & Human Rights Resource Centre. Human-rights related COVID-19 news updates.
• The Just Recovery movement has identified specific actions for addressing certain human rights impacts in the context of COVID-19
• The Danish Institute of Human Rights’ guidance and toolbox for human rights impact assessments.
• Global Business Initiative on Human Rights’ resources on identifying Human Rights Impacts.
• Know the Chain. A resource for companies and investors to address forced labor in global supply chains. Our benchmarks and practical resources help companies operate more transparently and responsibly, while also informing investor decisions.

Discrimination

Everyone has the right to be treated equally and without discrimination at work.^{Footnote 3} Companies are responsible for ensuring that COVID-related measures are clear, consistent, do not favour or exclude workers on the basis of characteristics (e.g. ethnicity, race, gender, age, health status, etc.), and accommodate their diverse needs.^{Footnote 4}

Violations of human rights include the following:

• Dismiss or furlough certain communities of workers for factors such as health (e.g. sick, immuno-compromised such as pregnant women), status (e.g. age, migration).
• Treat certain people differently at work in ways inconsistent with the protection of their human rights (e.g. selective medical testing, selective access to personal protective equipment, who has to come in to work).
• Cancel/delay audits/inspections due to COVID-19 (e.g. labour standards and occupational safety), including disclosing appropriate information.
• Fail to monitor and address bullying and harassment, which tends to increase during economic downturns such as a pandemic, typically targeting underserved

Violations of human rights include the following:

• Dismiss of furlough certain communities of workers for factors such as health (e.g. sick, immune compromised such as pregnant women), status (e.g. age, migration).
• Treat certain people differently at work in ways inconsistent with the protection of their human rights (e.g. selective medical testing, selective access to personal protective equipment, who has to come into work).
• Cancel/delay audits/ inspections due to COVID-19 (e.g. labour standards and occupational safety), including disclosing appropriate information.
• Fail to monitor and address bullying and harassment, which tends to increase during economic downturns such as a pandemic, typically targeting underserved workers including those identified on the basis of their race, ethnicity, gender identity or sex.

Measures to ensure human rights are protected:

• Ensure any work policies/decisions (e.g. layoffs) are reasonable, consistent with human rights policy even when government policy/public health advice does not and applied consistently in the company.
• Accommodate diverse needs of workers (e.g. mental/physical health, family responsibilities, special protections for specific communities).
• Communicate clear policies and expectations about labour practices to contractors and suppliers.
• Continue to conduct regular audits/inspections and follow-up on findings (e.g. labour standards and occupational safety), including appropriate information disclosure.

Communicate clear policies and practices regarding non-harassment to workers, their representatives, contractors and suppliers, monitor the workplace and respond quickly and effectively to allegations of harassment, sexual harassment and gender-based violence.

Slavery, forced labour

Nobody should be forced to work against their will (e.g. through violence, blackmail, debt bondage, confiscation of identity papers).^{Footnote 5} Companies need to ensure that the context of work does not constitute forced labour within the company and by contractors/suppliers.

Measures that are illegal and ill-advised:

• Structure work on the basis of repaying loans or advances issued by the company.
• Assign work with the implicit or explicit expectation that refusal or failure to meet expectations will directly result in dismissal or other negative consequences (e.g. denial of promotion, withdrawal of benefits, police involvement).
• Delay or decrease amount of pay or not pay wages or contracts for work completed.
• Cancel/delay audits/inspections due to COVID-19 (e.g. labour standards and occupational safety), delay implementing recommendations, and disclosing appropriate information.
• Force underserved individuals including children, migrant workers, persons with disabilities, or older persons, to work without providing any other options to prevent economic instability.

Measures to protect against slavery and forced labour:

• Ensure human resources are managed in accordance with clear, transparent, fair policies.
• Communicate clear policies and expectations about labour practices to contractors and suppliers.  Ensure that workers receive fair wages at regular intervals for work completed.
• Continue to conduct regular audits/inspections and follow-up on findings and recommendations (e.g. labour standards and occupational safety), including appropriate information disclosure.

Ensure that the needs of underserved workers are accommodated at work including COVID-related measures, and urge local governments to provide for the welfare of underserved individuals.

Just and favourable pay and work conditions

Everyone has the right to fair pay and a safe and healthy work environment.^{Footnote 6} Companies need to ensure safe working conditions for workers, ensure that overtime hours are not excessive, that workers are appropriately compensated and are treated with dignity.^{Footnote 7}

Unjust measures include:

• Fire workers who, based on local laws, have to self-quarantine after contact with someone who has COVID-19.
• Force workers to use company transportation that does not respect physical distancing.
• Assign excessive overtime or fail to provide insufficient breaks, rest time to make up for slower production due to COVID-19. 
• Reduce or not pay wages to offset profit losses due to COVID-19. 
• Require workers to pay for personal protective equipment or other accommodations necessary to reduce the risk of virus transmission.
• Punish workers that refuse unsafe work because of fear of virus transmission or workers who cannot use PPE, such as masks.
• Harass/intimidate workers or allow a work environment that is intimidating, hostile, or humiliating for workers.
• Cancel/delay audits/inspections due to COVID-19 (e.g. labour standards and occupational safety), including disclosing appropriate information.
• Fail to accommodate for workers’ stress related to the measures put in place due the the pandemic, ill health in the family, and economic insecurity can impact the health of workers, the health at work and get in the way of business operations

Measures that protect workers include:

• Provide sick leave or another form of leave until a worker is cleared to come back to work.
• Provide transportation options such as adding buses or vans to respect physical distancing.
• Provide personal protective equipment or alternative work arrangements (working from home, social distancing, rotations) to protect the health and safety of workers and allow workers to choose to wear a mask or not based on their preferences and mask bylaw exemptions, including exemptions based on human rights.
• Provide decent wages and appropriate compensation for overtime hours worked.
• Communicate and enforce clear, transparent, consistent labour and workplace conduct policies, which take into consideration the gender-specific impacts of COVID-19.
• Communicate clear policies and expectations about labour practices to contractors and suppliers.
• Ensure that processes are in place for freedom of speech and freedom of opinion that allow workers to communicate health and safety concerns without fear of negative consequences.
• Conduct regular audits/inspections and follow-up on findings (e.g. labour standards and occupational safety), including appropriate information disclosure.
• Provide support to workers including access to sick leave, where needed.

Freedom of assembly, expression, information

Despite the challenges that COVID-19 poses for gatherings, it is important that worker engagement and information disclosure activities continue during the pandemic. Everyone has the right to assemble peacefully, the right to express their opinion, and the right to seek and receive information. Lack of transparency, and repression of assembly and expression are ongoing human rights concerns associated with business activities. Companies need to respect workers' rights to form unions, associate, express concerns, and/or organize strikes. Measures that limit movement and gatherings must be justified, necessary, proportionate, and time-limited.^{Footnote 8} Companies also need to continue to respect stakeholder rights to express concerns and to participate in decisions that affect them.^{Footnote 9}

Measures that violate human rights:

• Prevent mobilizations or suppress expression of COVID-19 concerns through direct or indirect means (e.g. physical force, threat of dismissal or other consequences).
• Cancel or significantly postpone engagement or information disclosure activities due to COVID-19.
• Suppress, ignore, or fail to respond to COVID-19 concerns raised.
• Influence other stakeholders to prevent mobilizations or expression on the company’s behalf.
• Cancel/delay audits/inspections due to COVID-19 (e.g. labour standards and occupational safety), including disclosing appropriate information.

Measure to protect human rights freedom of assembly, expression and information:

• Encourage alternate forms of assembly, advocacy, and expression (e.g. online, petitions, small groups, outdoor gatherings).
• Communicate and enforce clear, transparent, consistent labour and workplace policies, including information on worker and stakeholder rights to freedom of assembly, expression and information within the company and to contractors and suppliers. Communicate and enforce clear, transparent, consistent policies on engaging workers and stakeholders within the company and to contractors and suppliers.
• Engage with communities and conduct information disclosure activities through mutually acceptable alternative means (e.g. online, acceptable alternative means (e.g. online, petitions, outdoor gatherings, small group meetings).
• Ensure that processes are in place to allow workers and stakeholders to communicate workplace and COVID-19 related concerns that question the mainstream media information without fear of negative consequences.
• Ensure that processes are in place to allow and respond to COVID-19 related concerns, including questioning the increasingly mandated regimens, raised by workers and stakeholders.
• Conduct regular audits/inspections and follow-up on findings (e.g. labour standards and occupational safety), including appropriate information disclosure.
• Measure to protect human rights freedom of assembly, expression and information
• stakeholders within the company and to contractors and suppliers.

Privacy

Everyone has the right to privacy.^{Footnote 10} Companies need to ensure that any COVID-related measures taken do not infringe on the privacy of workers or other stakeholders. Companies also need to ensure that private information of workers is handled appropriately.^{Footnote 11}

Measures that restrict privacy:

• Gather information about workers without their consent and/or inconsistent with the law (e.g. compulsory medical testing for hiring decisions), for example, in the context of tracking exposure to COVID-19.
• Share or disclose confidential information about workers without their consent and/or inconsistent with the law (e.g. about underlying health conditions).
• Coerce workers to agree to using the contact tracing app and to consent to sharing health, mobility and other personal information with others, for the “greater good”. (For example, if workers do not consent, they cannot work at the business.)
• Cancel/delay audits/inspections due to COVID-19 (e.g. labour standards and occupational safety), including disclosing appropriate information.

Measures to protect privacy:

• Communicate and enforce clear, transparent, consistent labour and workplace policies that respect individual human rights to privacy, including the collection and management of private information (e.g. health conditions) within the company and to contractors and suppliers.
• Ensure that information collection and management is done with informed consent of those individuals.
• Conduct regular audits/inspections and follow-up on findings (e.g. labour standards and occupational safety), including appropriate information disclosure.

Health, environment, livelihoods

Everyone has the right to life, health, an adequate standard of living, and the right to own property.^{Footnote 12} An ongoing human rights concern associated with business activities is the potential for adverse environmental or health effects that may infringe on the human rights of workers or stakeholders. Companies should continue ongoing due diligence activities in this regard and ensure that new or previously identified issues are not ignored because of COVID-19.^{Footnote 13} 

Measures that restrict the rights of workers:

• Cancel or postpone regular monitoring activities, audits/inspections, or responses to adverse impacts (e.g. accidents, spills) due to COVID-19, including disclosing appropriate information.
• Fail to provide company housing for migrant workers that respects local requirements for physical distancing.
• Disrupt access to resources that individuals rely on for subsistence (e.g. water, land) through company consumption of that resource, contamination, damage, displacement, etc., or by restricting or limiting access due to COVID-19 transmission concerns about spreading the virus
• Cause or contribute to contracting COVID-19 (e.g. through transmission, exposure, etc.)
• Suppress or ignore legitimate concerns raised regarding COVID-19 (e.g. labour standards and occupational safety).
• Deny compensation for damages caused.

Measures that protect the rights of workers:

• Communicate and enforce clear, transparent, consistent human rights policies about the management of adverse impacts within the company and to contractors and suppliers.
• Expand existing company housing to respect physical distancing and other ways to prevent transmission of the virus.
• Undertake due diligence to identify and mitigate adverse environmental and health impacts, including emotional and psychological stress and anxiety due to the measures that limit mobility and choice,  associated with business activities.
• Conduct regular audits/inspections and follow-up on findings (e.g. labour standards and occupational safety), including appropriate information disclosure.
• Measures that protect the rights of workers:
• Ensure workers and stakeholders are engaged and informed about their rights and relevant risks and impacts.
• Ensure processes are in place for workers and stakeholders to communicate COVID-19 concerns in a safe and confidential space and to, including concerns about the measures that violate human rights, and access effective and appropriate remedy in the event that adverse impacts arise.
• Track the effectiveness of responses to these communicated concerns.

Indigenous Peoples’ Rights

Most countries in the world, including Canada, have endorsed the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), which highlights the survival, dignity and well-being of the Indigenous peoples. In addition to commitment to uphold UNDRIP and internationally recognized human rights, Indigenous Peoples’ right to self-determination, culture, and consultation are also protected through various international human rights instruments.^{Footnote 14} Inadequate respect for these rights has been an ongoing human rights concern associated with business activities, one that may be heightened during the pandemic. Companies need to ensure that these rights continue to be respected.^{Footnote 15} 

Measures that restrict Indigenous Peoples’ rights:

• Cancel, postpone, or limit meaningful engagement or information disclosure activities due to COVID-19.
• Disrespect decision of Indigenous Peoples’ communities to limit or restrict access to their land or other resources to reduce COVID-19 transmission.
• Cancel/delay audits/inspections due to COVID-19 (e.g. labour standards and occupational safety), including disclosing appropriate information.
• Prevent mobilizations or suppress expression of COVID-19 concerns through direct or indirect means (e.g. physical force, threat of dismissal or other consequences).
• Suppress or ignore COVID-19 concerns raised, including concerns about the unfair mandatory measures.
• Deny compensation for damages caused.
• Influence other stakeholders to prevent mobilizations or expression of COVID-19 concerns on the company’s behalf.

Measures that protect Indigenous Peoples’ rights:

• Communicate and enforce clear, transparent, consistent policies on engaging Indigenous Peoples within the company and to contractors and suppliers.
• Wait for the Indigenous Peoples’ community’s cue for when it is appropriate to access their land to respect health concerns
• Encourage alternate forms of assembly, advocacy, and expression (e.g. online, petitions, outdoor gatherings, small group meetings).
• Engage with Indigenous Peoples’ communities and conduct information disclosure activities through mutually acceptable alternative means (e.g. online, petitions).
• Ensure that processes are in place for workers and stakeholders to communicate COVID-19 concerns that violate the rights of indigenous peoples and access effective and appropriate remedy in the event that adverse impacts arise.
• Conduct regular audits/inspections and follow-up on findings (e.g. labour standards and occupational safety), including appropriate information disclosure.

Gender equality and the rights of women, girls, and LGBTQI persons

There is widespread recognition that COVID-19 has disproportionate impacts on underserved individuals, including women, girls, and LGBTQI persons, due to historically rooted inequalities, and that the pandemic threatens to roll back the hard-won global gains made in gender equality and human development. Impacts of the virus include more barriers for women and girls, and LGBTQI persons, who may also be migrant workers and belong to ethnic minorities, in being able to claim their rights. It is the responsibility of companies to identify these barriers to assess and mitigate adverse human rights impacts for the most underserved. Note: The term “woman” refers to transwomen as well.

Measures that violate women’s rights:

• Force women who experience domestic violence to work from home due to physical distancing policies.
• Fail to provide adequate company housing for migrant women workers.
• Fire women due to increased responsibilities to care for family members or care for children affected by confinement measures.
• Deny women time off to access sexual and reproductive health services, which has been reduced due to resources diverted to COVID-19 response
• Fail to protect women against sexual harassment and violence from security guards and others enforcing COVID-19 measures
• Fail to raise awareness and provide accessible work policies that empower women to claim their rights due to low status and low literacy relative to men
• Fail to monitor the effectiveness of COVID-19 measures for women and/or put in place measures that do not reflect women’s needs

Measures to protect women’s rights:

• Conduct a gender-based analysis (GBA+) for all COVID-19 measures and ensure needs are mainstreamed into initiatives, with its effectiveness monitored and evaluated
• Provide options to work from home or at the regular workplace.
• Provide sexual harassment and violence against women and girls resources at work.
• Expand company housing for women so that it is adequate and safe.
• Provide flexible working arrangements for women that meets their needs.
• Encourage men to take on unpaid care work at home and provide flexible working arrangements for them.
• Provide flexible working arrangements to allow women to claim their right to health and quality of life.
• Enforce anti-harassment policies that prohibit workers from sexual harassment and gender-based violence and provide a channel for remediation
• Ensure all policies are promoted and provided in a way that is understood by workers with the lowest literacy level
• Conduct a gender-based analysis (GBA+) for all COVID-19 measures and ensure needs are mainstreamed into initiatives, with its effectiveness monitored and evaluated
• Ensure that women have the right to freedom of expression, freedom of movement, freedom of choice over measures that violate their individual rights.
• Involve women’s rights organizations to assist businesses in understanding and advocating for women’s rights.