Multinational companies and the right to social security

Abstract

The right to social security, included in international texts such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, has not obtained general recognition. Its evolution differs in the various existing social security systems. In European countries systems (in general, in the western countries systems), it achieves its maximum subjective and objective extension. But it is not the case in the so-called developing countries. The obligations that both systems impose on companies are different, qualitatively and quantitatively. This diversity, on the one hand benefits multinational companies, but on the other it causes a significant lack of protection for workers whose rights are unknown (life, physical integrity, dignity, salary sufficiency, work ...). This paper first examines the weaknesses of the legal instruments available to us to hold multinational companies liable for the occurrence of contingencies usually protected by social security systems; secondly, the paper analyses the level of commitment that can be imposed on them in the development of such systems. In the paper, some solutions to those detected shortcomings are proposed, by updating the institution of legal responsibility, reinterpreting the principle of solidarity on which the aforementioned right to social security is erected and by examining the possibilities that these effects offer to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).