Ipieca has become a supporter of Building Responsibly (BR), a global, business-led coalition committed to promoting the rights and welfare of engineering and construction workers. This formalizes Ipieca and BR's existing collaboration and will enable the two organizations to further engage on enhancing worker welfare throughout the oil and gas industry supply chain.
Last week (26-27 October), Ipieca was invited to participate in BR's bi-annual meeting in London. It provided an opportunity to exchange ideas with BR members for future collaboration through peer learning calls, the promotion of Ipieca's labour rights training - developed in close collaboration with BR - and opportunities to amplify BR's Worker Welfare Principles.
The event included a stakeholder roundtable with NGOs, investors and companies, during which participants shared operational challenges and opportunities around worker welfare, as well as the importance of worker engagement and worker voice, themes which will continue to drive Ipieca's work in 2023.
'We know that when people feel cared for, they perform at their best. Our ambition is to respect and promote the rights and welfare of our employees and contractors. We work closely together with our peers and contractors and more than 20 of our top contractors have now signed up to the Building Responsibly principles, which will impact over a million workers. We are delighted that Ipieca has become a supporting member, further raising the bar on worker welfare and driving consistency across the industry' - Monique de Witt, Manager Worker Welfare, Shell and member of Ipieca Supply Chain Working Group and Building Responsibly.
Advancing the SDG Roadmap
Worker welfare is key to achieving SDG 8 on economic growth and decent work, and is a core element of the Ipieca-WBCSDSDG Roadmap 'thriving workforce' impact opportunity. By becoming a supporter of BR and its principles, Ipieca is continuing to deliver on impact pathway 80 to contribute to collaborative opportunities to enhance worker welfare throughout the industry supply chain, and promote high standards and good practice informed by the UNGPs framework.
About Building Responsibly
BR aims to improve standards, policies, and practices to accelerate impact on worker welfare across the construction and engineering industry, with activities including:
- Creating and adopting common principles and practices
- Developing tools
- Engaging workers, clients, governments, civil society, and international organizations
- Driving innovation and continuous improvement