Common use of Investment and Labor Clause in Contracts

Investment and Labor. 1. The Parties reaffirm their respective obligations as members of the International Labor Organization (“ILO”) and their commitments under the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work and its Follow-Up. 2. The Parties recognize that it is inappropriate to encourage investment by weakening or reducing the protections afforded in domestic labor laws. Accordingly, each Party shall ensure that it does not waive or otherwise derogate from or offer to waive or otherwise derogate from its labor laws where the waiver or derogation would be inconsistent with the labor rights referred to in subparagraphs (a) through (e) of paragraph 3, or fail to effectively enforce its labor laws through a sustained or recurring course of action or inaction, as an encouragement for the establishment, acquisition, expansion, or retention of an investment in its territory. 3. For purposes of this Article, “labor laws” means each Party’s statutes or regulations,17 or provisions thereof, that are directly related to the following: (a) freedom of association; (b) the effective recognition of the right to collective bargaining; (c) the elimination of all forms of forced or compulsory labor; (d) the effective abolition of child labor and a prohibition on the worst forms of child labor; (e) the elimination of discrimination in respect of employment and occupation; and (f) acceptable conditions of work with respect to minimum wages, hours of work, and occupational safety and health.