STR's Labor and Employment Standards Library (LESLi) -- Over 140 countries, one database.
 Sourcing overseas? Researching international labor standards? Trying to invest wisely, but also ethically?

STR’s Labor and Employment Standards Library (LESLi) is the Internet’s most relevant one-stop resource to help academics, sourcing, legal, and investment professionals gain easy access to continually updated information on labor, wage, and health & safety laws applicable to social compliance assessments. The Labor and Employment Standards Library (LESLi) contains a searchable collection of relevant legal text excerpts for over 140 countries, translated into English from their foreign-language originals.

In addition, we offer unique analysis tools to help make country-to-country comparisons of legal requirements, as well as advanced site functionality that allows searches by specific law criteria. Subscribers will also gain access to over 10 years worth of news articles on responsible sourcing and labor issues. STR’s Labor and Employment Standards Library is an essential tool for anyone who needs instant access to information and laws related to international labor and worker welfare.

Laws By Country
This subscription option is ideal for those who research, source or invest in a limited and consistent set of countries. This subscription provides users with comprehensive access to the searchable and exportable country labor law profile for your selected countries. more...
Laws By Category
This subscription is ideal for topic specialists working in multiple countries. This option gives subscribers access to laws for all countries related to a specific area of law such as hiring and termination or health & safety. All laws within the subscribed-to categories can be searched and exported, with each law topic divided into multiple subtopics, giving subscribers a convenient way to compare laws between countries. more...
Analytical Tools
This subscription option gives subscribers access to all three of our analytical tools for convenient, at-a-glance comparisons of legal requirements, eliminating the need to scan through full law profiles, which can often be deeply technical and time consuming to sort through. more...
International Standards Profile
STR introduces a unique profile of industry best practices: a comprehensive compilation of standards from several globally recognized bodies in the area of social compliance and worker welfare. The profile addresses a gap in the industry – there is no recognized set of universal social compliance standards and laws can vary widely from country to country.

Incorporating ILO and UN Conventions and Declarations on labor and human rights, as well as International Fire and Building Codes, the profile is an excellent resource to help understand how the various standards can complement each other. Additionally, it's an invaluable tool for benchmarking and creating a robust responsible sourcing program.

Based on years of experience in assessing sourcing risks on behalf of international organizations and institutions and Fortune 500 companies, STR has included only the most substantive and practical standards in the International Standards Profile, making it a “must have” tool for any organization that is committed to good sourcing practices. more...

LESLi All-Access Subscription
The subscription provides access to 140 country law profiles, which contain English translations of 17 fundamental aspects of labor regulation, many spanning national, regional and municipal levels of legislation in Wages, Work hours, Deductions, Benefits, Legal Records, Legal Postings, Hiring and Termination, Child Labor, Legal Youth Employment, Discrimination & Harassment, Forced Labor, Freedom of Association, Operational Safety, General Workplace Conditions, Fire Safety, Health & Hygiene and Chemicals & Hazardous Materials. Furthermore, subscribers will be able to search all laws by all categories.

Additionally, this subscription option gives users access to all three of our analytical tools for convenient, at-a-glace comparisons of legal requirements, eliminating the need to scan through full law profiles, which can often be deeply technical and time consuming to sort through.

Customers can also take advantage of the searchable database of news articles, containing nearly 10 years worth of news from around the world on responsible sourcing. more...

World-Wide Law Availability
Laws by Country Subscription
This option is ideal for those who research, source or invest in a limited and consistent set of countries. This subscription provides users with comprehensive access to the searchable and exportable country labor and employment law profile for your selected countries. The country law profile contains English translations of 17 fundamental aspects of labor and employment regulation, many spanning national, regional and municipal levels of legislation in Wages, Work hours, Deductions, Benefits, Legal Records, Legal Postings, Hiring and Termination, Child Labor, Legal Youth Employment, Discrimination & Harassment, Forced Labor, Freedom of Association, Operational Safety, General Workplace Conditions, Fire Safety, Health & Hygiene and Chemicals & Hazardous Materials. Additionally, as with all of our subscriptions, customers can take advantage of the searchable database of news articles, containing nearly 10 years worth of news from around the world on responsible sourcing.

Select a Country:


Select a country and click on the Information Icon to view laws included in the country profile
*DISCLAIMER: This section is intended to give an idea of how many laws are available for a specific country; however, it is not a reflection of the comprehensiveness of content. STR has labor and employment laws for every country listed however our ability to collect implementing regulations and decrees varies depending on multiple factors and country legal structure.


Tour the Library


Frequently Asked Questions
Click here to view a list of Frequently Asked Questions.
Recent Library Additions
Country: Canada
Category: Operational Safety - Accidents
Title Occupational Health and Safety Act (1996), Art. 63
Date Added: 9/3/2010

Country: Canada
Category: Chemicals and Hazardous Materials - Chemicals and Hazardous Materials
Title Occupational Health and Safety Act (1996), Art. 59
Date Added: 9/3/2010

Country: Canada
Category: Legal Postings - H&S
Title Occupational Health and Safety Act (1996), Art. 38
Date Added: 9/3/2010

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Industry News Updates
US: European Corporate Hypocrisy
Human Rights Watch , 9/2/2010
Many European companies that publicly embrace workers' rights under global labor standards nevertheless undermine workers' rights in their US operations, Human Rights Watch said in a report issued today. The 128-page report, "A Strange Case: Violatio ...
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Workers at L.A. recruiting company indicted in human-trafficking, forced-labor conspiracy
LA Times , 9/2/2010
Employees and the owner of a Los Angeles-based labor-recruiting company were indicted Thursday by a federal grand jury in Honolulu for allegedly engaging in a human-trafficking conspiracy involving Thai immigrants who were forced to work on farms, th ...
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Pressure on environment to rise
Shanghai Daily , 9/1/2010
CHINA will continue to face pressure on its environment over the next 15 years as its economy continues to grow, an environment ministry official said yesterday. Though top Chinese leaders have reiterated that economic expansion should not be achieve ...
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Clean-up bid for Yangtze set to begin
China Daily , 9/1/2010
An alarm over massive environmental damage along the Yangtze River and its Three Gorges reservoir has been raised by officials as authorities plan to spend billions of yuan treating sewage and planting forests in a major clean-up campaign. While abou ...
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