IWS Documented News INTERNATIONAL

IWS Documented News Service

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Institute for Workplace Studies----------------- Professor Samuel B. Bacharach

School of Industrial & Labor Relations-------- Director, Institute for Workplace Studies

Cornell University

16 East 34th Street, 4th floor---------------------- Stuart Basefsky

New York, NY 10016 -------------------------------Director, IWS News Bureau

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International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant,

Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers’ Associations (IUF)

 

'Continuous excellence' or more dubious claims in Nestlé's sustainability reporting?

http://cms.iuf.org/?q=node/1652

 

[excerpts]

Nestlé watchers on the company's mailing list may be puzzled by the fate of the message they received on April 12 entitled "Nestlé receives GRI A+ rating for Creating Shared Value report. The original article claimed that Nestlé had received an A+ rating from the Global Reporting Initiative for its 2011 'Creating Shared Value Report'." That claim is no longer made - apparently the communications folks at Nestlé were apprised that the GRI awards no ratings.

 

As a guide for investors concerned with various aspects of risk, the GRI reports remain most valuable for what the companies choose not to report on then for what they claim to disclose.

...

For the first time - and here Nestlé deserves credit - the report acknowledges that the company is at human rights risk in the areas of freedom of association and collective bargaining. Yet Nestlé, as in past years, cannot provide information on something as basic as the number of employees covered by collective bargaining agreements, or union involvement in health and safety programs. And the report falsely contends that the mass firings of union members at the Panjang factory in Indonesia - currently an area of conflict with the IUF - was in response to a strike which was "illegal". It was not. There is a total disconnect between the abstract acknowledgement of human rights risks arising from workplace relations and the company's persistent refusal to furnish concrete information which might elucidate at least part of the reality of those workplaces.

 

AND MORE…

 

Press Release 8 May 2012

New downgrade for Nestlé CSR rating

http://cms.iuf.org/sites/cms.iuf.org/files/Continuousexcellence.pdf

[full-text, 3 pages]

 

 

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