Study No Accountability without Transparency Legal Instruments for Corporate Duties to Disclose Working and Employment Conditions Eva Kocher, Alexander Klose, Kerstin Kühn, Johanna Wenckebach June 2012 n Labour law lacks effectiveness because of structural weaknesses in law enforcement. Compliance with minimum occupational and employment standards, however, is a human rights issue; disregard for them entails social risks for democracy and social cohesion. n Mobilising consumers, though also competitors and public contractors, through competition and market-based policies, could ensure greater effectiveness of labour law through appropriate sanctions or incentives. However, such policies require information and transparency: Consumer markets and competition need to have at their disposal the requisite information for evaluating social and em­ployment standards. n It is essential to create a company-related system of reporting that should be separated from the financial reports under company law in order to underscore the changed expectations on companies as regards disclosure. n The duty of disclosure should be supplemented with auditing obligations and flanked by rights of associations to take legal actions. Entrusting the independent audit to private organisations that would have to be officially accredited could also promote the creation of a market for social-ecological auditing. n Statutory regulation in the form of a»comply or explain« mechanism could refer to already established systems of indicators or it could seek to develop a corresponding system of its own with the help of a multistakeholder commission.