News update as of September 28, 2018

Ikea/ An international trade union coalition delivers a complaint to the OECD protesting the occurrence of workers rights violations at Ikea in several countries. On 27 September, an international trade union coalition, (UNI Global Union, UFCW (US), FNV (The Netherlands), Mandate (Ireland) and SITESE (Portugal)) delivered a complaint to the Dutch OECD national point of contact (where Ikea is headquartered) that could be lodged if the OECD’s guidelines for multinational enterprises are violated. The unions are demanding that ‘an inquiry be held into several alleged violations of Ikea’s workers rights,’ declared the UNI Global Union press statement. The complaint deplores Ikea’s management failure to effectively counter anti-trade union campaigns in the USA, Ireland, and Portugal. Christy Hoffman, General Secretary of UNI Global Union said, “the company’s top management repeatedly ignored the red flags that workers and unions have raised about violations of rights in its stores around the world.  So we’ve asked the Dutch government to step in to ensure that we can end these unacceptable practices.” In the press statement the general secretary continued, “IKEA employees in several countries have sought unionization to address serious workplace issues such as stressful working conditions, erratic or unfair scheduling, sick leave polices, sexual harassment, and other forms of adverse treatment of workers.” The press statement also explains that the complaint is based on several  running legal actions in different countries ‘based on an extensive review of legal filings and dozens of worker interviews, some of whom describe, “a repressive and threatening anti-union environment.”