LinkedIn Dialog
Group: CSRwire, The Corporate Social Responsibility Newswire

Discussion: Sarah Brown ... If it's a legal responsibility, is it CSR?

Burgess COMMENTARY

Peter Burgess

Group: CSRwire, The Corporate Social Responsibility Newswire 10,710 members Member Discussion: Sarah Brown Ideas Inspirer ... If it's a legal responsibility, is it CSR?

Sarah Brown Ideas Inspirer Passionate about world changing strategy and idea development for 21st century businesses and social enterprises The conservatives have just announced that they would make it law to offer 3 days paid volunteering to workers http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election-2015-32243680 is this good or bad for CSR?

Election 2015: Cameron pledges 'paid volunteering leave' bbc.co.uk

The Conservatives pledge three days paid volunteering leave a year and no above-inflation rail fare rises until 2020, but Labour say neither policy is new or fully funded.

Like Comment (1) Unfollow Reply Privately1 day ago

Comments 1 comment

Peter Burgess Peter Burgess Founder/CEO at TrueValueMetrics developing Multi Dimension Impact Accounting

I see a big confusion about what is the tail and what is the dog. Dog wags tail or tail wags dog.

The fact that politicians are able to play games with words suggests to me that the there is mass confusion about what matters and what does not. It seems to me that volunteering is a good thing, but paid volunteering seems like an underhand way of the government requiring a business cost without actually having the nerve to call it taxation.

My view of the modern socio-enviro-economic system is that it is very complex and being gamed by those with power and influence on a scale that has never been seen before. Corporate profit performance has been impressive for 50 years but in the same time people earning wages have had to struggle harder and almost all the governments around the world are short of funding for the work it is reasonable for them to be doing ... in other words governments are being shortchanged by the financial elite just as workers have been shortchanged. Owners of the economy are in great shape, everyone else is sucking wind ... and the ownership class is discounting future risks in a way that is incomprehensible except that discounting the future is the standard business school approach and at this point in history, fundamentally wrong.

CSR is vital ... but in a real sense, not merely as a way to do window dressing or green-washing. Better metrics about everything would help, and perhaps is going to be the best way to incentivize the changes we need. Delete 1 day ago Ashwini Saxena likes this

Ashwini Saxena Ashwini Ashwini Saxena CSR Lead

You are so right Peter!! However, as the challenges to fund public good increase for the governments, they tend to look towards the corporates for the same. So first you allow shortchanging of systems by which resources are accessed in an inequitable manner, to lead to inordinate profits and then you wish to get some out of it through taxes etc. However, as the dearth of resources increases and access to them would decrease, the fight would be on very difficult grounds and so sooner or later the juxtapositioning of interests would pose difficult questions both to the government and the corporates. Like Reply privately Flag as inappropriate 2 hours ago

Bezaleel Azariah Bezaleel Bezaleel Azariah CSR State Coordinator at Bosch Limited

Well there is still confusions on the volunteering system in CSR. I believe that volunteering is out of the sole interest of the employee. Paid volunteering? That is ok if employees are forced to volunteer. Like Reply privately Flag as inappropriate 1 hour ago

Sarah Brown Ideas Inspirer Sarah Sarah Brown Ideas Inspirer Passionate about world changing strategy and idea development for 21st century businesses and social enterprises

To me it sounds like sound bite politics which hasn't been totally thought through, take the issue of the NHS where it would apply and they are arguing it will reduce sickness days as it motivates staff. I totally believe that volunteering can be highly motivational but not if people are just doing it to get paid time off work Like Reply privately Flag as inappropriate