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Deutsche Telekom’s latest CSR report, released on Wednesday, states the company will “involve employee representatives” in decisions on offshoring and outsourcing. This is in clear contradiction to the company’s recent decision to shut seven call centres in the United States without consideration or consultation with employees.



“UNI is appalled by the hypocrisy of the company’s statement in its latest CSR report, which comes just weeks after announcing closures that will put 3000 people out of work in the US in June,” said UNI General Secretary Philip Jennings. “The CSR report acknowledges the right of employees to have representatives, like a union, and that those representatives should be involved in key decisions related to the workforce. While this may be its standard in Germany, the company has taken an aggressive anti-union approach in the United States.”



The closure announcements follow an anti-union campaign by T-Mobile USA management to fight workers’ attempts to form a union to represent them.



UNI is calling on Deutsche Telekom to live up to its CSR report and respect its US employees right to form a union to represent them. UNI and German union ver.di, US union Communications Workers of America and the International Trade Union Confederation created the We Expect Better campaign to push the company to respect employees’ right to unionise and bargain collectively in every country where it operates, including the US.



“Deutsche Telekom should follow the letter and the spirit of its own standards when it comes to all of its employees around the world,” Jennings said. “We will not accept any false promises and we will continue to push the company to fulfil its responsibilities.”



You can find the full report here: http://www.cr-report.telekom.com/site12/home



You can find out more about the We Expect Better Campaign here: http://www.weexpectbetter.org/