Exploring influences on child labour disclosure: the role of sustainability policies and stakeholder engagement

Purpose Child labour abolition is one of the four essential human rights identified by the International Labour Organisation and sustainable development goals. Although public organisations and governments have implemented a variety of actions to control business activity and protect children’s rights, cases of child labour adoption continue to be documented. This paper aims to establish multinational companies’ disclosure procedures regarding child labour and to identify some potential determining factors. Design/methodology/approach A content analysis approach is used on sustainability reports from multinational companies throughout the world to assess the overall amount of disclosure concerning child labour adoption and to generate a child labour disclosure (CLD) score. In addition, to better understand this issue, an empirical investigation was conducted on a sample of 85 multinational companies to identify the factors that influence CLD. Findings The findings show that there is a low degree of disclosure on this issue throughout the world and that stakeholder engagement has a positive impact on disclosure levels. In contrast, the existence of a corporate social responsibility (CSR) committee and a CSR-based compensation policy has a negative influence on CLD. Originality/value The statistical results provide a unique viewpoint as they illustrate the amount of CLD using impression management theory, confirming the notion of negative event omission and text manipulation in developing the business image. These findings have important implications for literature development, as well as for managers, policymakers and stakeholder groups.