Matthias Thorns, IOE

REPRESENTING EMPLOYER ORGANIZATIONS THROUGHOUT THE WORLD

Experience of international business in
application of OECD Guidelines for
Multinational Enterprises and CSR principles
in their daily operation
LDDK CSR Conference

Matthias Thorns
Senior Advisor - IOE

7 November 2013


What is the IOE ?
•

Peak international organisation representing employers
organisations and their members.

– Private and voluntary.
– Not part of ILO - Not paid by ILO – Independent.
•

Most representative global business organisation : 150 EOs in
144 countries. E.g. LDDK

•

Established in 1920
2


Situating the IOE
EMPLOYERS

UNIONS

GLOBAL
OECD

IOE
BIAC

ITUC
TUAC

EUROPE

Businesseurope

ETUC

3


Global Employer Representation
IOE

NATIONAL ORGS
SECTORAL / REGIONAL ORGS
(SOME COUNTRIES ONLY)
INDIVIDUAL EMPLOYERS /
BUSINESSES

4


Main international CSR instruments and tools
• United Nations Global Compact
• United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human
Rights
• OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises (OECD
Guidelines)
• ISO 26000 Guidance Standard of Social Responsibility (ISO
26000)
• ILO Tripartite Declaration of Principles concerning Multinational
Enterprises on Social Policy (ILO MNE Declaration)
5


2011 CSR Communication of the EU
Commission
The Commission invites:
• All large European enterprises to make a commitment by 2014
to take account of at least one of the following sets of principles
and guidelines when developing their approach to CSR: the UN
Global Compact, the OECD Guidelines for Multinational
Enterprises, or the ISO 26000 Guidance Standard on Social
Responsibility.
• All European-based multinational enterprises to make a
commitment by 2014 to respect the ILO Tri-partite Declaration
of Principles Concerning Multinational Enterprises and Social 6
Policy.


EU study on References made by large EU
Companies to internationally recognised CSR
Guidelines and Principles
• 68% of the sample companies make reference to CSR, 40%
refer to at least one internationally recognised CSR instrument.
• 33% meet the European Commission's call to refer to at least
one of the following: UN Global Compact, OECD Guidelines for
Multinational Enterprises, or ISO 26000.
• 2% meet the European Commission's call to refer to the ILO
MNE Declaration.
• 3% refer to the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human
Rights.
• The UN Global Compact and the Global Reporting Initiative,
with 32% and 31% respectively, are the most commonly
7
referenced instruments.


CSRforAll Project
• Survey of at least 100 companies per country (Croatia,
Macedonia, Montenegro, Romania, Turkey).
• The UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights were
best known by company representatives in Croatia (21%),
Montenegro (40%) and Turkey (63.8%).
• Awareness of ISO 26000 also ranked high in all of the countries
except Croatia (22% in Macedonia, 25% in Montenegro, 18% in
Romania and 39% in Turkey).
• Whereas in Macedonia 6%, in Romania 11.93%, in Montenegro
17% and in Turkey 24.5% of the companies which are aware of
at least one of the above mentioned instruments make use of at
least one of them; in Croatia the number is markedly higher at
57.4%.
• The reason for the gap between awareness and use of the
8
instruments might indicate training needs by companies.


UN Global Compact
• Has its origins in a speech by the then UN Secretary-General
Kofi Annan at the 1999 World Economic Forum in Davos, where
he called on the business community to join with the UN in
helping to put a human face on globalisation
• 10 principles on Human Rights, Labour Standards,
Environment, Corruption
• More than 10,000 participants, including over 7,000 businesses
in 145 countries around the world.
• GC office in New York has a budget of US $ 9 million
9


UN Global Compact issues
• Loss of focus: Compact has moved away from focusing on the
principles and engaging through the responsible UN agencies,
to being a multi-stakeholder, open-based platform covering a
range of issues as for instance the engagement in the
Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) debate.
• Stronger formalisation: Reporting requirements.
• Lack of Governance: GC Leaders Summit, Local Networks,
Local Networks Forum, GC Board, GC Donor Group.
• Efforts to establish Local GC Networks as the recognized
national business voice, instead of national Employers and
business federations.

10


UN Guiding Principles for Business and Human
Rights
• In June 2011 the UN Human Rights Council endorsed the UN
Guiding Principles for Business and Human Rights and

• decided to establish to set up a Working Group on business and
human rights to promote the effective and comprehensive
dissemination and implementation of the UN Guiding Principles
on Business and Human Rights.
• UN Guiding Principles address states and companies.
• Operationalization of the “protect-respect-remedy” framework.
11


The five independent members of the Working Group are:
• Mr. Michael Addo (Senior Lecturer in international human rights
law at the University of Exeter)
• Ms. Alexandra Guaqueta (Attached to the School of
International Studies at Flinders University)
• Ms. Margaret Jungk – Chair (Director of the Human Rights &
Business Department at the Danish Institute for Human Rights)
• Mr. Puvan Selvanathan (UN Global Compact)
• Mr. Pavel Sulyandziga (Member of the Public Chamber of
Russia and working on the issue of the protection of indigenous
rights)
12


The Working Group pursues three work streams through which it
will deliver its mandate:
• Global dissemination
• Promoting implementation
• Embedding in global governance frameworks
Current Projects:
• UN Forum on Business and Human Rights
• Country Visits (Mongolia, USA, Russia, Ghana, …)
• Company and government Survey
• Global Community of Practice Initiative
• GP Laboratory
13


UN Forum on Business and Human Rights
• The first UN Forum on Business and Human Rights took place
on 4 and 5 December 2012 in Geneva.
• The event took a constructive approach and focused on the
challenges of implementing the UN Guiding Principles.
• The next UN Forum on Business and Human Rights will be
on 3 and 4 December 2013 in Geneva. Business PreMeeting on 2 December in the afternoon.

14


Company Survey
• The results of a company survey jointly undertaken by the IOE,
ICC, Global Business Initiative and the University of Denver on
the challenges of implementing the UN Guiding Principles were
presented at the Forum. According to the survey,
– 96% of companies engage in philanthropy and other voluntary activities that
contribute positively to society, and this over and above their compliance
with national law.
– 83% of companies have made a public commitment to respect human
rights, and
– 86% have signed up to voluntary initiatives that address the respect of
human rights.

• The IOE, ICC and the Global Business Initiative are
currently undertake a follow-up survey! Please join!

15


Challenges for Companies
• What does a HR due diligence approach looks like

• Doing Business in WGZ
• Supply Chain Management

16


Government survey
• The UN Working Group also undertook a government survey
with regard to the implementation of the UN Guiding Principles.
• From 193 UN members states only 24 participated in the
survey.
• Key topics for governments: Equal opportunities and gender
equality at the workplace (21 states), migrant workers (16
states), freedom of association (16 states), child labour and
environmental pollution (15 states).
• Conclusion: “The state survey indicates that governments are
still in in the initial phase of the implementation of the UN
Guiding Principles”.
• The UN Working Group sets up a NGO survey on the
implementation of the UN Guiding Principles, on questions
17
on how involved they are in remedy processes


Webcast of the Business and Human Rights
Webinar is now available
• On 20 December 2012 IOE Secretary-General Brent Wilton
delivered a webinar on the UN Guiding Principles on Business
and Human Rights to provide employer organisation members,
and their member companies, with a preliminary update on the
implementation of the Guiding Principles, as well as to discuss
challenges and obstacles.
• A webcast of this webinar is now available via the following link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpYTfIItm1I&feature=youtu.be
18


ISO 26000
• Adopted in Nov. 2010.

• Guidance Standard on the social responsibility of all kinds of
organisations.
• Not a management system standard, nor is it intended or
appropriate for certification purposes or for regulatory or
contractual use.

19


What are the main strengths of ISO 26000?
• It reflects broad international consensus on the elements of
social responsibility, drawn from authoritative international
instruments.
• As such, it serves as a good basis for cross-border discussions
on social responsibility.
• It provides good orientation for starting a social responsibility
journey.
• It contains a good basis for engaging in stakeholder dialogue
and other external discussions.
• It allows for freedom of use: users may draw upon as much or
as little of the guidance as necessary to help inform their own
social responsibility policies or practices.
20


What are the main weaknesses of ISO 26000?
• Unlike most international SR instruments, ISO 26000 is not
freely available and must be purchased at a cost of between
€50 - €160.
• At 118 pages, ISO 26000 is long, complex and difficult to read;
• Many sections of the guidance are clearly oriented more toward
larger organizations and will not be relevant for smaller or
medium-sized organizations.
• The guidance tends to dictate actions by the reader rather than
to explain the benefits of SR and encourage action by the user.
• Even though ISO 26000 is explicitly not for certification, it has
been misused by many who have offered certification services. 21


ISO 26000 Issues
• Development of national certifiable standards based on ISO
26000 (Denmark, Spain).
• Efforts to develop ISO 26000 further at international level (The
Netherlands Standardization Institute (NEN) submitted a
proposal to ISO’s Technical Management Board (TMB) for the
development of an ISO International Workshop Agreement
(IWA) on self‐declaring the application of ISO 26000 (July
2012). French, Dutch, Swedish follow-up initiative.
• The discussion about ISO 26000 since it was launched has
been dominated by the issue of certification, rather than
focusing on efforts to increase dissemination and use of ISO
26000 (ISO workshop in November 2012).

22


• On 15 October 2013, ISO launched a five-month Systematic
Review of ISO 26000 (please see attachment). The question
being put to the national ISO member bodies is: Should ISO
26000 be confirmed, revised/amended, converted into another
form of deliverable, or withdrawn?
• It is therefore of the utmost importance that you engage with
your national standardisation body to ensure that there is no
request from your country for new standard setting for a
certifiable ISO 26000.

23


ILO Tripartite Declaration of Principles
concerning Multinational Enterprises on Social
Policy
• It is an instrument negotiated and adopted by governments,
worker and employer organisations, and is therefore based on
broad consensus.
• By contrast with the OECD Guidelines for Multinationals, the
ILO’s Tripartite Declaration of Principles targets companies and
governments in all countries and is therefore also supported by
governments and social partners in developing countries.
• Unlike the OECD Guidelines, it only deals with social policy
themes.
24


• ILO MNE is not well known. On the other hand it has to be
recognised that the provisions of the ILO Tripartite MNE
Declaration are (partly) included in the OECD Guidelines and
ISO 26000. Thus, the impact of the Declaration might be higher
than the low number indicates at first sight.
• 2011 CSR-Communication of the EU Commission invites “All
European-based multinational enterprises to make a
commitment by 2014 to respect the ILO Tri-partite Declaration of
Principles Concerning Multinational Enterprises and Social
Policy.”

25


Challenging wording in the ILO MNE
Declaration
• MNEs should provide wages and benefits “not less favourable”
than those offered by “comparable employers in the country
concerned.” If no comparable employers exist, companies
should “provide the best possible wages, benefits and
conditions of work, within the framework of government policies.
These should be related to the economic position of the
enterprise, but should be at least adequate to satisfy basic
needs of the workers and their families.”
• Important Link to the OECD Guidelines for Multinational
Enterprises
Danger of NCP Case!
26


Activities regarding the ILO MNE Declaration
• Promotional activities of the ILO (e-learning tool, etc)

• Follow-up survey.
• Helpdesk for companies.

27


ILO Helpdesk for Business on International Labour Standards
The ILO Helpdesk is a free and confidential service that can help
companies align their operations with international labour
standards.
Contact: assistance@ilo.org or +41 22 799 62 64

28


Thank you very much for your attention!

Matthias Thorns
Phone +41 (0) 22 929 0021
thorns@ioe-emp.org

29

Matthias Thorns, IOE

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

What's hot

What's hot (15)

Viewers also liked

Viewers also liked (20)

Similar to Matthias Thorns, IOE

Similar to Matthias Thorns, IOE (20)

More from Julija Vasiljeva

More from Julija Vasiljeva (20)

Matthias Thorns, IOE