CORPORATIONS AND CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

Everyone in the world is affected by corporations in one way or another, simply because of the fact that the products we consume and services we use are provided by businesses formed predominantly as a company or corporation (these two terms used interchangeably).

A corporation as a legal person does have both rights and responsibil­ities that are conferred and imposed on it with the recognition of a separate entity independent of its owners and managers. One of these obligations is social responsibility owed to the society in which it operates and thereby provides its products and services to the people for consumption. The notion of CSR is founded on the stakeholder theory of the corporation^{24 [440] as opposed to the apparently rival stockholder theory of the corporation,[441] whilst the former advances relatively new concepts compared to the latter which is solely devoted to the maximization of shareholders’ benefits.[442] A contemporary corporation in general has various responsibilities, such as financial, environmental and social. All these responsibilities have had a legal dimension which may vary between jurisdictions and legal systems. Therefore a single definition of any of these responsibilities is hard to be articulated.}

In an effort to define CSR, some commentators argue that it ‘is inherently vague and ambiguous, both in theory and practice’.^[443] In the absence of any universally accepted definition of CSR and recognition of the fact that any appropriate connotation of this concept (CRS) is problematic,^[444] it can be broadly described as being the responsibility to promote good and prevent harms of the society of consumers of products and services of a given corporation.^[445] The World Business Council for Sustainable Development defines CSR as ‘the continuing commitment by business to behave ethically and contribute to economic development

Corporate social responsibility and workplace casualties in Bangladesh 147 while improving the quality of life of the workforce and their families as well as of the local community and society at large’.^[446] The World Business Council further states that CSR refers largely to corporate ethical behaviour towards society that particularly requires corporate management to act responsibly in its relationships with stakeholders who have legitimate interests in its business going beyond the interests of stockholders.^[447] Amongst the stakeholders, it goes without saying that employees hold a significant stake in their corporation in terms of generating benefit for, and causing harm to, the respective society.

Islam is a religion of peace, harmony, brotherhood and tolerance. The Islamic principles consider business organisations and their responsibil­ities in a somewhat different way. This is because Islamic scholars in general firmly believe that the holy book of Qur’an is not merely a religious book, but a complete code of life as mentioned earlier. Hence the religious faith and conviction of Muslims considerably influence their everyday decisions including those of business transactions.^[448] CSR is integral to the concept of corporate governance. There are as good as six approaches to corporate governance recognised around the globe, an Islamic approach is one of them.^[449] As explained by the scholars of Shari’ah, the primary objective of corporate governance in Islam is ensuring ‘fairness to all stakeholders to be attained through greater transparency and accountability’.^[450] Kay and Silbertson term a large public corporation as a social organisation, and therefore should be governed by ‘the concept of trusteeship to sustain its assets’ including ‘the skills of its employees, the expectations of customers and suppliers, and the company’s reputation in the community’ would appear to sit

comfortably with the Islamic thoughts of corporate governance.^[451] In this description of CSR, the skills of employees and corporate reputation in the community do inherently embrace the safety of workers at the workplace, the absence of which must negatively affect both employees’ performance and corporate social image.

Further, the Islamic law puts the foremost emphasis on the structure of a commercial transaction in order to determine the presence of any element that may invalidate the profit stemmed from a business deal, and this structural investigation is somewhat similar to that of the secular corporate law which aims to strictly comply with the corporate charter.^[452] Any vitiating elements repugnant to the principles of Shari’ah in a transaction would render it illegal ipso facto.^[453] This is so because Islamic corporate governance is concerned with both the substance as well as the form of the business transaction.^[454] When it comes to an employment relationship, Shari’ah requires both the employers and their employees to adhere to the rights and obligations enshrined in the Islamic rules prescribed for maintaining a healthy relation between these two unequal parties with the spirit of brotherhood and harmony. Central to this relationship is the protection of employees at the workplace by their employers. Making money showing disregard for the relevant Islamic dictates should be religiously vitiated, therefore, would be regarded as prohibited for a Muslim employer. Shari’ah contains specific principles for workplace safety that are binding on all Muslims at work.

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