Unions file complaint against Deutsche Post DHL

By Colleen Freeman.

On June 24, the International Transport Workers Federation (ITF) and UNI Global Union filed a complaint against communications and logistics giant Deutsche Post DHL for breaches to the UN Global Compact’s Principles 1 and 2 relating to human rights, Principle 3 regarding freedom of association and the right to collective bargaining, and Principle 6 concerning the elimination of discrimination.

In their complaint, ITF and UNI detail how DHL discriminated against employees and actively discouraged workers from joining the American Postal Workers’ Union at its now closed Allentown, Pennsylvania facility. The complaint also describes how DHL has subjected workers to emotional and psychological abuse by requiring lie detector tests in Panama, Costa Rica, Columbia, South Africa and allegedly in El Salvador. In India, DHL has refused to engage in good faith bargaining, and has discriminated against and dismissed trade union members. According to the unions, DHL has also violated Indian Labor Law by paying temporary workers who are performing core functions below the prevailing wage. In addition, the complaint notes that a well-known Norwegian trade union activist was recently dismissed for supposed infractions of company rules. The unions also assert that Deutsche Post DHL’s 2010 Communication on Progress “is vague, incomplete and misleading” on human and labor rights issues and indeed failed to mention any of the issues ITF and UNI have been raising with the company for some time.

ITF and UNI have called on Deutsche Post DHL, a Global Compact member since 2006, to enter into a global framework agreement to ensure their employees’ human and labor rights are respected worldwide. Failing appropriate action by the company, the unions have requested that Deutsche Post DHL be expelled from the Global Compact.

On July 14, the Global Compact Office asked Deutsche Post DHL to provide written comments responding to the allegations of ITF and UNI.

The complaint is available here.

Indians believe Global Compact is used to mask human rights abuses

The UN's flagship business initiative is being used as a tool to mask human rights abuses, according to Ayoreo Indians in Paraguay.

Leaders of the tribe, some of whose members are still uncontacted, have written to the UN Global Compact saying they are "concerned and frustrated" by the inclusion in it of a controversial Brazilian ranching company.

The company, Yaguarete Porá, was charged and fined for illegally clearing the Ayoreo's forests, and concealing evidence of uncontacted Ayoreo living there. The Ayoreo have asked that it be expelled from the Global Compact.

The UN Global Compact was designed for companies "committed to aligning their operations with ten universally accepted principles," including respect for human and environmental rights.

In its reply, the Global Compact has admitted that it has "neither the resources nor the mandate to conduct investigations into any of our participants".

Yaguarete Porá won Survival International's "Greenwashing Award" in 2010 for "dressing up the wholesale destruction of a huge area of the Indians’ forest as a noble gesture for conservation".

While some Ayoreo have been contacted by missionaries, a number remain hidden in the forest. But their land is being quickly destroyed to make way for cattle farming.

Yaguarete has angered the Ayoreo by promoting its membership of the UN Global Compact on its website, which the Indians believe promotes a false image of corporate responsibility.

Survival’s Director Stephen Corry said today, "This makes an utter mockery of the UN Global Compact. If the UN doesn't make sure companies displaying its logos abide by the rules, such initiatives become entirely meaningless. Yaguarete should be forced to leave the Compact immediately."

Source: Survival International (5/7/2011).