Public revolt in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, and elsewhere makes it clear that many yearn for rights and liberties. But states are not the only institutions obligated to respect human rights. Companies also have human rights responsibilities and can be complicit in violating human rights. For example, during the first days of [...]

Hewlett-Packard received negative press coverage today and over the week-end as its CEO Mark Hurd resigned after an internal investigation stated falsified expense reports. The company said Mr Hurd violated HP’s Standards of Business Conduct, but not its sexual harassment policy.
The Wall Street Journal, Wired Magazine, easybourse.com, The Australian Business, laprensaenlinea, Washington Examiner, and New [...]

Stung by labor shortages and a rash of suicides this year at its massive factories in southern China, Foxconn Technology said Wednesday that it would immediately raise the salaries of many of its Chinese workers by 33 percent. The pay increase is the latest indication that labor costs are rising in [...]

Mirror, mirror on the wall, who’s the greenest of them all? Top manufacturers of personal computers in the U.S. — Hewlett-Packard Co, Dell Inc, and fourth-place Apple Inc. — are each claiming to have the “greenest” PCs on the market. The companies are crafting entire business plans around selling their “greenness” to consumers.John Spooner, [...]

En août 2008, Greenpeace avait montré du doigt l’exploitation de l’Afrique comme un dépotoir pour les déchets électroniques du reste du monde. Aujourd’hui, HP et Microsoft se penchent sur un continent oublié par le « green IT ». L’Afrique reste encore et surtout la poubelle électronique du reste du monde, comme l’a montré Greenpeace dans [...]

Innovative green and social products greatly contribute to the ethical reputation of technology hardware companies, while labour, legal, institutional and production-related challenges are rising, states a report published today by Geneva-based research firm Covalence – Covalence Technology Hardware Industry Report 2008. In Covalence cross-sectors EthicalQuote ranking Technology Hardware recently lost the 1st rank against Automobiles [...]

HEWLETT-Packard is striving to have a workforce profile that reflects the diverse one billion people using HP products worldwide. This would see the Fortune 500 company embarking on retraining women or attracting more women to join it, said vice-president of human resources (Asia-Pacific and Japan) Michael Vivakis. According to him, diversity means more than just [...]

Thousands of South Africans who suffered under apartheid won the right yesterday to sue a number of companies, including BP, Citigroup and Ford, for allegedly helping to perpetrate human rights abuses. The US Supreme Court ruled that three class actions can use the American legal system to sue approximately 50 international corporations who they believe [...]

While just about all big computer makers are taking steps to make technology more environmentally friendly, Asustek is one of the first to unveil a bamboo-encased computer. Some niche companies geared toward eco-conscious consumers offer bamboo computer mice, keyboards and monitor frames. “As part of a portfolio of case choices, it makes sense,” said Roger [...]

Hi, I’m an employee of HP, and I can understand why they did well in your survey. They’re a fine company and treats customers & employees with respect. But I used to work for IBM and for the life of me I can’t understand why they even made your list. I knew managers [...]