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SCMP Reporter

The PCCW Employees General Union launched  a number of protests last month against PCCW for laying off staff and cutting wages.  
The workers  feel PCCW  has shown a lack of corporate social responsibility.  
This  issue should be seen against the backdrop of the protest against PCCW, HSBC and the Hong Kong Council of Social Service's Caring Company Scheme. 
PCCW  has not taken seriously its corporate social responsibility and yet ironically the council decided to give it [and HSBC] a  'caring company' award under the scheme.  
With regard to  PCCW's privatisation and layoffs, top managers were less than transparent about these plans. 
They did not adequately discuss with the unions the  potential impact of the  privatisation. 
 Trade unionists must call into question the  selection criteria of the 'caring company' scheme, given that some of the firms given this award have neglected the interests of their workers,  unilaterally cut staff wages and employed workers offshore on much lower wages.  The caring company scheme can help an enterprise promote its brand, but the scheme is clearly failing if that firm fails to act as a moral force  for change when it comes to the corporate decision-making process.  
 A firm should not be given such an award unless it  can show genuine corporate social responsibility. A good example to follow is the Fair Trade Foundation in Britain.
 A company  should have to meet some minimum requirements  with regard to workers'  rights, human rights and environmental sustainability.  
Such a company would be expected, for example, to have  increased transparency of business decisions, allocation of a certain number of jobs for people with special needs and  increased investment into human development for offshore workers. 
Until the criteria are changed so that the needs of different stakeholders are considered, selfish enterprises will continue to become recipients of the caring company awards.  
Ho Chun-kit, Students and Scholars Against  Corporate Misbehaviour



No awards for firms that fail to show corporate responsibility