Yesterday, Congresswoman Maxine Waters and Congresswoman Gwen Moore of the US House Financial Services Committee sent a letter to U.S. Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew expressing “strong concern” about certain elements of the World Bank’s proposed labor policy. The Bank is in the final stages of updating its environmental and social safeguard policies, which will include a welcome new policy on workers’ rights—a contentious issue for some of the Bank’s most influential borrowers. Potential compromises by the Bank’s member countries could lead the policy to fall short of “highest international standards.”
The letter encourages the Bank to ensure the new safeguards, and the labor policy in particular, meet the highest international standards. A failure to do so, the letter says, would be “extremely” disappointing and “may lead to a situation in Congress where it will become increasingly difficult to garner the votes necessary to continue robust U.S. support for the World Bank.”