Protector turns Oppressor?: ‘Hidden work’ and the dark side of Codes of Conduct

Codes of conduct (CoC) have been increasingly adopted as a key expression of the international corporate social responsibility (CSR) of multinational corporations, particularly towards the people engaged in their manufacturing operations. Specifying ethical norms and values that firms claim to hold and apply to trade partners and vendors, CoC aim to ensure that the conditions under which manufacturing takes place is not exploitative and meets basic minimum internationally agreed employment and working standards. While the extent to which such protections are afforded to workers remain suspect and hugely debated, the intent and potential of CoC to protect factory workers’ interests and human rights has become entrenched in the international CSR toolkit. Both research and practice literature repeatedly insist on improved ‘implementation’ including calls for adopting mandatory approaches. Might such overwhelming faith in prospects of CoC, however, be misplaced? Drawing on an ethnographic study with garment factory workers, this paper draws attention to the dark side of CoC – the hidden work that is generated and ultimately passed onto the factory workers not only limits but, instead, inverts the very intentions of CoC. Unless such hidden work is acknowledged and accounted for, the promise of the potential of CoC based approaches for workers remains questionable.