The Impact of Corporate Social Responsibility on Workers andTrade Unions in Indonesia

Abstract

Though the concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR) has been evolving for decades, no single all-encompassing meaning has as yet been achieved. The worker and the trade union, both stakeholders in the company, are certainly affected by a company's CSR pollcy and its implementation. The focus of this chapter is on the implementation of CSR and its effect on workers and trade unions with the assumption that the content of a corporate CSR programme is everything that the company contributes towards the workers' welfare other than that which is already included in the labour laws or in the working agreement or collective labour agreement, reinforcing the belief that the leitmotiv of CRS programmes is to divert workers' demands or weaken, and gradually eliminate the trade union. By investigating the CSR activities in four companies, this chapter shows that CSR is a subtle means by which the company management can showcase its concern for the workers' welfare and thereby arm itself with the tools to persuade the trade union to cooperate with the management The CSR's effective influence varies from no impact or minimum impact to the busting of Unions, when the company's CSR plans fail. The result of this initial research shows that the formation and development of trade unions is necessary for the workers to avoid a violation of their rights, and to control the company's CSR implementation with a collective labour agreement