Do companies that claim to be socially responsible adequately manage occupational safety and health?

Abstract

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is an increasing demand in companies around the world. We have assessed the degree of CSR in 112 Ecuadorians companies (671 participants), of which 58.9% were multinational, from all sectors and geographical country areas. This was done with the objective of knowing the degree of implementation of occupational safety and health management, and whether there is a correlation between these values and those of CSR. A validated questionnaire was used for the institutional and legitimacy part, the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) for the social part, and mandatory audits on occupational health and safety management. An indicator was also added with perceived priorities of social aspects of CSR for the studied population obtained through DELPHI methodology. More than 90% of the studied companies have quality, occupational health and safety, and CSR management systems. 51% of the companies claim to have an adequate system, while only 6.3% of them exceeded the minimum threshold required by Ecuadorian regulations. The women in boards of directors are less than 1% and there are differences between multinational and national companies, as well as in the trading activity of organizations in the institutional context, in legitimacy, and in social aspects. We conclude that the assessment of social aspects with the Global Reporting Initiative seems to be overestimated when compared with the occupational health and safety management system audits or with an indicator created on perceived priorities of CSR social aspects.