Devida diligência obrigatória em direitos humanos do trabalho: desafios, limites e possibilidades para a responsabilização das empresas transnacionais

Abstract

The dissertation studies the institute of mandatory due diligence in labor human rights, mapping its challenges and limits and exploring its possibilities for legally holding transnational companies accountable for violations of workers' human rights in their global value chains. The centrality of transnational companies in the global economy, driven by globalization and the fragmentation of production, has complicated the legal accountability of these companies, given their multi-level commercial operations in global value chains and multiple jurisdictions, often in countries with weak labor regulations. The research analyzes the changing role of the International Labour Organization (ILO) in global labor regulation and the consolidation of the concepts of labor human rights and decent work as foundations for the universal regulation of corporate activities in the labor field. The dissertation presents the construction of debates on transnational companies and global value chains, exploring their systematization within the scope of Transnational Labor Law, regarding corporate accountability. It also examines the role of extraterritorial jurisdiction in the debate on the accountability of transnational companies, considering the limitations of the incidence of national laws on human rights violations occurring outside the territory of the regulating State. The study examines the concept of human rights due diligence and conducts a comparative analysis of European mandatory human rights due diligence norms: the laws of France (2017), the Netherlands (2019), Norway (2021), Germany (2021), Switzerland (2021), and the European Union directive (2024). The question to be investigated, therefore, is to determine the extent of the operability of mandatory due diligence so that transnational companies can be held accountable for their actions or omissions that impact labor human rights wherever they operate or obtain their profits. The study observes that these norms represent progress in corporate accountability for violations occurring in their value chains but problematizes obstacles such as variability in the scope of application and coverage, insufficient civil liability regimes, and economic resistance. It concludes that, despite normative advances, mandatory human rights due diligence in labor still faces significant challenges to become a guiding vector for the regulation of corporate legal responsibility in the labor field. This qualitative research, based on documentary survey, employs a critical socio-legal method to analyze legal dogmatics in a comparative perspective.