News

Four Swedish national pension funds are to divest their holdings in Walmart after being advised by their Ethical Council that the company is linked to the systematic abuses of workers’ rights.

The Swedish AP funds are the latest in a string of major pension funds to desert the world’s largest retailer.

UNI Global Union is the global trade union for the commerce sector. General Secretary Philip Jennings said: “We welcome this important decision by Sweden’s pension funds, and the work of our affiliate union, Handels, in making it happen.

“This is yet more evidence that Walmart values its profits over the human rights of its own workforce.



“The world’s pension funds are deserting Walmart in droves, and rightly so. It is about time the company showed the sort of responsibility that should come with being the world’s biggest employer.”



Having engaged with Walmart for years in an attempt to find a common ground, the Ethical Council finally decided it has no choice but to withdraw its investments in the company.



The move follows a decision by the Dutch OECD National Contact Point that investors should have a responsibility under OECD Guidelines even when they are only minority shareholders in a company. This means that investors and other financial institutions have a responsibility to exert influence where possible on companies in which they invest to uphold fair labour standards throughout their operations.



In 2012, the Netherlands' biggest pension fund blacklisted Walmart for noncompliance with the United Nations Global Compact Principles, and earlier the ultra-rich Government Pension Fund of Norway dumped its Walmart shares, also citing labour standards and union obstruction.