Ben Moxham's Archive

Ben Moxham

I’m a policy officer with the TUC’s snappily titled European Union and International Relations Department. I cover trade, decent work and international labour standards, as well as our work on priority countries such as Iraq Palestine/Israel and Burma. I’m also the TUC’s backstop on a range of complicated international meetings that begin with the letter “G”. I represent the TUC on the board of the Ethical Trading Initiative and as an alternate member on the even more snappily titled, Steering Board of the UK National Contact Point for the OECD Guidelines on Multinational Enterprises.

Before joining the TUC in 2007, I did a Masters in development studies at the LSE, masqueraded as an industrial relations lawyer in Melbourne, and worked as a policy officer for a Southeast Asian development NGO based in Thailand from 2002-2004. When pressed at immigration, I claim to be Australian.

International
Making the EU’s GSP worker-friendly in seven easy steps

10th November 2011 — Filed under: International

Ben Moxham

The EU’s snappily title “Generalised System of Trade Preferences” or “GSP” is a rare creature in the world of international trade instruments: it links trade with human rights in a binding way. It rewards developing countries with access to EU markets if they effectively implement key human rights and environment conventions. But given that serial labour rights abusers such as Colombia and Georgia are still on the scheme, unions are heavily critical of it.

The EU is currently updating the GSP and we’ve put forward many ideas on how to improve it. Below is an edited speech (I’ve added some hyperlinks, cut out the blah blah) I recently gave to a study group of the European Economic and Social Committee outlining those ideas.

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International
G20 diary: Yes we almost Cannes

4th November 2011 — Filed under: International

Ben Moxham

I’ve managed to grab a quick break in the G20 media centre to scribble out a few thoughts over what has been a furious 24 hours of lobbying here in Cannes.

In that time, union leaders have met with most G20 heads of state, as well as with the heads of the IMF, UN, World Bank, OECD, ILO, and the European institutions. We’ve been running across the lurid green carpet of the Press Centre, doing interviews whenever the media are able to look beyond Athens.

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International
A G20 diary: global labour leaders (and Robin Hood) arrive in Cannes

3rd November 2011 — Filed under: International

Ben Moxham

The leaders of the G20 are descending on Cannes this week for their annual summit, and their to-do list is intimidating: the global jobs crisis, Greece, bankers out of control again, Greece, the urgent need for a Robin Hood Tax, and yes, Greece. It promises to be a very interesting few days. This year’s summit is unique for the global trade union movement. For the first time ever we’re holding the “L20”: the trade union summit run in parallel with the main one. For the rest of the week trade union leaders from the G20 countries will be frantically lobbying heads of state (world leader speed dating, as Sharan Burrow ITUC General Secretary calls it) to get them to deliver on jobs, jobs, and more jobs. We need to create at least 80 million of them in the next couple of years just to return to pre-crisis levels of employment, according to the ILO. The last two G20 summits contained a few brief hand wringing phrases about the unemployed as governments committed to slashing budgets, and dragging us to the brink of another recession.

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International
The ‘Doing Business’ report is still doing harm

21st October 2011 — Filed under: International

Ben Moxham

The World Bank has just published its annual “Doing Business” report. This flagship publication ranks countries on how easy it is for business to do everything from starting up to enforcing property rights.

It is high influential, but also highly controversial in pressuring governments to scrap any sort of regulation – from employment protection to paying taxes. This year’s report has responded to some union criticisms but is still largely a roadmap for “doing business as usual”.

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International
Our World Day for Decent Work

7th October 2011 — Filed under: International

Ben Moxham

Today workers from across the globe are marking the World Day for Decent Work with some 600 activities in 83 countries.

Launched by the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) four years ago, the day aims to spread awareness about “Decent Work”. Instinctively we all know what that means: to have a job that allows you to live in dignity. Yet to deliver that requires governments, employers and trade unions working together to achieve the four bigger objectives of: (1) creating jobs; (2) guaranteeing rights at work; (3) extending social protection and (4) promoting social dialogue. That is what International Labour Organisation (ILO) means by “decent work”. But what do these four objectives mean practically? And why do we need to achieve them more than ever?

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International
DFID trade advocacy fund ignores “big society”

12th September 2011 — Filed under: International

Ben Moxham

DFID has just launched its new trade advocacy fund to help poor countries better participate in trade negotiations. The fund is welcome, but it’s missing a vital component: it doesn’t support those often marginalised by trade liberalisation – from workers to smallholder farmers – to have their voices heard during trade talks.

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International
Standard Chartered vs Korean standards

29th July 2011 — Filed under: International

Ben Moxham

How do you bring about the longest and largest strike in the history of the South Korean banking sector? Attempt to impose a British model of individual performance pay that would ruin the South Korean tradition of workplace co-operation.

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International
The new OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises: should workers care?

26th May 2011 — Filed under: International

Ben Moxham

Yesterday the OECD launched its updated Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises –the key global treaty that can potentially hold big business to account for its impacts on workers and the environment. After 12 months of furious lobbying and negotiations, the new text is definitely a step forward for workers and their unions – but we’re still many steps behind.

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Economics
The lessons of trade liberalization, according to David Cameron (the other one)

11th April 2011 — Filed under: Economics, International, Public services, Working Life

Ben Moxham

I’ve just been reading “The Globalization Paradox”, by Harvard’s Dani Rodrik who makes an interesting and powerful point: “If you want markets to expand, you need governments to do the same.” (page 18).

Rodrik stumbles across this slightly counterintuitive conclusion in an old article by David Cameron – not our public budget butchering Prime Minister, but a political scientist from Yale.

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International
Dinosaurs in Paris: business as usual at the OECD

21st February 2011 — Filed under: International, Pensions & Investment, Working Life

Ben Moxham

I’ve just posted a blog on the Center for American Progress’ website about what the upcoming UN Framework and Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights might mean for workers globally.

The Framework, drafted by UN Special Representative John Ruggie proposes a profoundly simple idea: that businesses should be responsible for their human rights impacts wherever they occur. For the world of work, this means that a company must stop its negative impact on workers, regardless of whether or not they are directly employed by it. To rip off my own words, it can begin to tackle a massive global problem:

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Ben Moxham's Archive

Ben Moxham

Making the EU’s GSP worker-friendly in seven easy steps

G20 diary: Yes we almost Cannes

A G20 diary: global labour leaders (and Robin Hood) arrive in Cannes

The ‘Doing Business’ report is still doing harm

Our World Day for Decent Work

DFID trade advocacy fund ignores “big society”

Standard Chartered vs Korean standards

The new OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises: should workers care?

The lessons of trade liberalization, according to David Cameron (the other one)

Dinosaurs in Paris: business as usual at the OECD

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