News

Workers’ rights received a timely boost as the Norwegian parliament announced it will draft new investment rules for the country’s giant pension fund.

The government will draft an expectation document for Norges Bank Investment Management (NBIM) which manages the €791bn Norwegian Government Pension Fund. The move follows a number of complaints against NBIM under the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises for investing in companies allegedly responsible for workers’ rights abuses.

UNI Global Union General Secretary Philip Jennings addressed a hearing at the Norwegian parliament in May this year and pushed strongly for a human rights dimension central to the Fund’s responsible investment policy.

“The Norwegian Government Pension Fund Global invests in 9000 companies and should be insisting on the highest standards of respect for human rights in those companies,” Jennings said at the time.  “The time has come for the fund to develop a coherent human rights’ pillar to its responsible investment strategy and the Norwegian parliament has this opportunity to push the debate along.”

The UNI Global Union General Secretary is currently in New York attending the United Nations Global Compact where he has expressed his frustration at slow progress by big business to implement plans to respect human rights.

“85% of business leaders surveyed say business must respect human rights but only 20% have written policy on it,” Jennings said. “The result is slow progress.”

Under the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights agreed in 2011 governments are requested to publish national action plans but to date only six have done so.

Amazon is one prime example of a multinational company ignoring its human rights responsibilities. The world’s largest e-commerce retailer is refusing the right to a collective agreement to its workers in Germany. Amazon workers from UNI’s affiliate Ver.di in Germany are on strike this week for their conditions to be determined by collective bargaining.

“Amazon workers in Germany are taking strike action because the new economy giant is playing old world anti-worker boss,” Jennings said.

The UNI Chief also singled out Spanish security firm Prosegur as a laggard on rights in South America and said the company should respect human rights, country labour laws and global labour standards.