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TUAC-OECD Informal
Meeting on Multinational Guidelines
(Paris,
18 December 2002)
In a meeting with the bureau of the OECD
Committee on International Investment and Multinational Enterprises (CIME) on 18
December, TUAC representatives urged the need for more promotion of the OECD
Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises. TUAC, through its project on the
implementation of the Guidelines, together with affiliates and other labour
organisations, has held a number of workshops and seminars to raise awareness of
the Guidelines, yet the provisions still have too low
a profile.
To read the TUAC Progress Report, click
here
Calling on OECD governments to increase
their efforts to promote the Guidelines, TUAC pointed out the serious failure of
many National Contact Points (NCPs) to deal with cases effectively and in a
timely manner. Trade unions have raised about 25 cases with NCPs, but only a
few of these cases have been resolved or led to recommendations by NCPs. TUAC
drew particular attention to this failure at its plenary session on 21 November
and issued statement.
At the informal meeting with CIME, TUAC
also raised the issue of the United Nations Panel of Experts’ report on the
Illegal Exploitation of Natural Resources and Other Forms of Wealth of the
Democratic Republic of the Congo. This report contains a list of 85
multinational enterprises considered by the Panel to be in breach of the OECD
Guidelines. TUAC called on CIME to ensure that the findings of the Panel are
thoroughly investigated by NCPs.
Finally, TUAC expressed concern at the
growth of special economic zones, and the fact that OECD countries themselves
were engaging in such practices. It cited the law on Free Economic Zones
recently adopted by the Republic of Korea as being inconsistent with the
principle of the Guidelines.
OECD negotiations on
steel subsidies
TUAC joined senior delegates from OECD
countries (such as the US, Japan, Korea and the European Union) and leading
non-Members, including China, India, and Brazil, for informal consultation on
the occasion of the OECD’s High-level meeting on steel, which was held in Paris
on 18-19 December.
Discussions showed the OECD
plans to
move ahead on a discipline to restrict steel subsidies, with broad support from
the US and the EU. The other part of the OECD’s work on steel – the reduction
of capacity – looks as though it will remain an information-sharing exercise.
TUAC intervened to recall the
International Metalworkers Federation position elaborated at their Washington conference
on steel which called for a multilateral agreement to eliminate subsidies while
allowing governments to support the social costs of restructuring in a situation
which had seen jobs in the steel industry cut by 50 per cent since the early
1980s. TUAC also reminded the meeting that markets needed common rules of the
game in ensuring respect for workers’ fundamental rights. OECD work on active
labour market policies could usefully be integrated into these sectoral
discussions.
TUAC-OECD Liaison
Committee reviews issues and cooperation
The regular TUAC-OECD Liaison Committee
meeting on 22 November tackled two main questions: The governance of
globalisation and the OECD vocation; and, secondly, it reviewed and assessed
OECD key activities.
TUAC President John Sweeney, President
of the American AFL-CIO, said the OECD was a unique forum for discussing
challenges of public and private governance in which international labour unions
play a major role. But he emphasised that the labour movement remained
critical of the neo-liberal economic policies that had held sway over the past
two decades. The OECD should expedite its review of the OECD Principles of
Corporate Governance. The drafting of these Principles in 1999 was a good first
step, but they now stood in clear need of revision and completion. “We must
raise the bar”, President Sweeney urged.
TUAC Vice-President Luc Cortebeeck of
Belgium called for more effective exchanges. Other TUAC speakers stressed
the need for ensuring that there were core labour standards in non-OECD member
countries, especially in Asia (Kiyoshi Sasamori of the Japanese Trade Union
Confederation), and there was a call for public perceptions to be altered to
counter erroneous views that unions and labour rights were obstacles to economic
growth (Heinz Putzhammer of Germany).
On the second main issue discussed,
senior OECD officials and member-country delegates recalled the value of the
Organisation’s cross-disciplinary approach to the policy debate. In presenting
the question, TUAC General-Secretary John Evans stressed that globalisation
needed better rules, and he detected a tendency for OECD simply to view labour
markets as obstacles and thus in need of deregulation. The EDRC (economic
review) process was valuable but much less so if it meant finance ministers
talking together in getting out a hardline message. He said it was clear that
TUAC should have a role in the EDRC process, especially in order to reinforce
treatment of the social issues, which have now come to assume a larger dimension
in the economic policy spectrum He also reiterated the need for action on the
OECD MNE Guidelines. It was important to beef up the work on social issues on
the agenda, and TUAC, he said, was ready and keen to be engaged on the social
agenda in the OECD context. OECD Secretary-General Donald Johnston reaffirmed
OECD’s commitment to the Guidelines. He said they were being incorporated into a
number of national agreements.
To read the TUAC discussion paper for
the OECD Liaison Committee, click here
TUAC holds 109th
Plenary session
(Paris, 21-22 Nov 2002)
Meeting in plenary session at
OECD on November 21 and 22, TUAC members approved requests for affiliation from
two European labour confederations, the Confederation of Vocational Unions (YS)
from Norway, and the Confédération Générale du Travail (CGT) from France.
Following this election,
TUAC's membership now comprises 56 affiliate confederations with a total of more
than 69 million members from the 30 OECD countries. The TUAC plenary also
elected Kiyoshi Sasamori, President of Japan's Trade Union Confederation RENGO,
as a TUAC Vice-president in succession to Etsuya Washio who has retired.
The TUAC plenary opened on
November 21 with a discussion with European Union Trade negotiator Pascal Lamy
and OECD Secretary-General Donald Johnson, devoted to the Social Dimension of
Globalisation. In an important exchange of views, TUAC speakers called for trade and investment rules to be made more coherent
with wider concerns of public policy regarding the observance of fundamental
labour rights, especially in relation to the forthcoming Cancun meeting and also
in the context of new bilateral trade agreements. TUAC representatives
emphasised that a key element in securing globalisation with a “human face”,
taking account of labour's concerns, rested on better enforcement of the
Multinational Enterprise Guidelines adopted by OECD Member governments.
Later in the plenary, TUAC
met with top officials of OECD and OECD Ambassadors in the framework of the TUAC/OECD
Liaison Committee to discuss the OECD’s role in international economic
governance (see previous news story). Between now and end-April 2003 when the OECD is to hold its main
annual Ministerial, the following priority work areas were agreed by TUAC: (1)
employment and economic issues (2) implementation of OECD Guidelines for
Multinational Enterprises and follow-up to corporate governance and
anti-corruption work (3) sustainable development and climate change and (4)
Issues related to globalisation and core labour standards, especially in light
of preparations for the Cancun WTO ministerial conference slated for September
2003.
TUAC
argues for new rules on
globalisation
An article on the new
"rules of globalisation" by the TUAC General Secretary appears in
the most recent OECD Observer.
To read the article click
here
Unions accuse OECD governments of dragging
their feet on enforcing corporate rules
(Paris,
25 November 2002)
More than two years after the review of the OECD
Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises, TUAC is deeply concerned about the
lack of progress in their implementation. Governments adhering to the OECD
Guidelines are expected to ensure that companies operating in their countries
observe the Guidelines. In order to do this, governments must establish National
Contact Points (NCPs), whose responsibility it is to deal with cases raised in
an efficient and timely manner.
Trade unions have raised more than 20 Guidelines cases on
corporate conduct with NCPs. A majority of the cases concern violation of trade
union rights. More than half of the cases have been raised in the US, Dutch and
French NCPs. But only a handful of these cases have been resolved or led to
meaningful conclusions by NCPs. Some of the most serious involve Korean
companies.
The US NCP stands out as most passive. Not one of the five
cases raised has had a satisfactory outcome. The case on the Liberian
International Ship and Corporate Registry (LISCR) has, after 11 months, been
removed on the pretext of the case “being effectively addressed through other
appropriate means”.
A United Nations Security Council panel of experts
revealed in October 2001 that LISCR, which is registered as a US company, had
been used to transfer money to buy weapons for the Liberian government in
violation of the UN arms embargo.
In the light of this, the International Transport Workers’
Federation requested the US NCP to investigate whether the conduct of LISCR was
also in breach of the OECD Guidelines. The US NCP has clearly neglected its
responsibilities by rejecting the call to examine whether LISCR has violated the
OECD Guidelines. The fact that it has taken almost a year to draw this
conclusion is further proof of its neglect.
Furthermore, 85 companies (of which nine were from the US)
were recently listed in the report by the UN Panel of Experts on the Illegal
Exploitation of Natural Resources and Other Forms of Wealth of the Democratic
Republic of Congo as being in breach of the OECD Guidelines. TUAC supports the
panel’s conclusion that governments failing to take remedial measures are guilty
of complicity.
The TUAC Plenary Session at their meeting in Paris on
22 November called on governments to honour their commitment to the OECD
Guidelines and to look seriously into the behaviour of corporations believed to
violate those Guidelines.
Unions engaged in action to follow up
the WSSD
(Paris –
Monday, 14 October, 2002)
TUAC General Secretary John
Evans told the Paris-based UNEP Division of Technology, Industry and Economics (DTIE)
last week that workers’ organisations were willing to follow up on the new
ground created when ILO and UNEP agreed at a trade union conference in
Johannesburg to explore avenues of cooperation with them after the WSSD.
UNEP’s DTIE was hosting a post-WSSD consultative meeting with
industry associations in advance of the UNEP’s international Governing Council,
scheduled in Kenya next February, where the UN’s top environmental body will
adopt measures for WSSD follow up.
Evans said the drafting in the UNEP documents signaled a
healthy change within the organization, taking into account WSSD agreements to
integrate the social dimension, seek worker and trade union involvement, and to
engage in joint action plans within the UN family but particularly with the ILO.
The drafting of the documents propose new perspectives for
promoting sustainable consumption and production patterns and to redefine UNEP’s
‘Civil Society’ terms of references to include workers and trade unions, among
other group with which to work. Draft proposals were also put forward to include
workers and trade union issues within UNEP’s follow-up to the industry sector
reporting process, over the next decade, including over health and safety
issues.
Evans told NGO and industry representatives who attended the
meeting that trade unions were already focusing on several follow up issues and
that UNEP could count on their involvement and support for workplace
partnerships to ensure progress (see summary of Evans UNEP comments in Appendix
below). “We would use the WSSD language on employment and income security to
promote our plans for just transition in sectors and companies”, he said,
warning that “unless sustainable development can be shown to mean ‘sustainable
employment’ many working people who are threatened by change will not support
government action to achieve it”.
The UNEP meeting also reviewed issues related to corporate
accountability, in the context implementing the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI)
& Global Compact and OECD Guidelines on Multinatinal Enterprises. IFBWW-Europe
General Secretary, Mr. Harrie Bijen, spoke on a forum about multistakholder
dialogues and pointed to the trade union experience in Europe to implement
corporate accountability measures, but stressed the need for proper training and
education of workers.
Evans said that the Summit
opened a path in terms of workplace partnerships, laying the groundwork for
further commitment among governments, unions, and firms in which the social
dimension of development may progress. “To be able to commit ourselves, however,
we have to enjoy real protection of labour and human rights”.
He said that trade unions will
be extending their advocacy role to campaign for the fulfilment of commitments
on development assistance and poverty reduction and would further seek to
conclude more agreements at the international level between companies and Global
Union Federations.
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