No poverty, zero hunger and human resource management

This chapter connects the SDGs on poverty and hunger to the workplace and therefore to the welfare functions associated with HR. It begins with an overview of these specific SDGs before providing an historical overview of how poverty and hunger have been linked historically to work and employment, from nineteenth century philanthropy as a solution to pauperisation in early capitalist industrialisation, through the de-coupling of hunger and poverty from paternalist managerial prerogative during the nascent welfare state in the twentieth century, to the twenty-first century retreat from the high-point welfare-oriented HR of post WWII pluralism in the West to globalised neoliberalism and how the emergence of global value chains create new international divisions of labour that create new challenges. Two contrasting case studies are then offered. First, the re-emergence of in-work poverty and hunger in Britain is outlined, where working conditions among the growing proportion of the workforce on precarious contracts link directly to poverty, bad diet and to increasing impact on health inequalities. Second, the example of paternalist management practices in the Sri-Lankan tea and garment sectors is outlined where the link between food provision as part of a broader company welfare package creates dependencies upon workers.