Multinational companies

Eight months on from the signature of the renewal of the Global Framework Agreement (GFA) of EDF Group, over 25 trade union and management representatives came together on 19-20 February at the ILO International Training Centre in Turin to hone their skills to enable its implementation.

Carmen Laue and Heike Schmidt were reinstated as employees of the social care company Celenus, by a ruling of the Labour Court in Nordhausen in central Germany, on 17 October, 2018. The two union activists are members of Ver.di, a leading affiliate of PSI and the European Public Service Unions (EPSU).

Transnational companies (TNCs) have increased their investments in Brazil’s health sector. They have made a big adverse impact, causing deterioration in working conditions and a fall in the quality of services.

The intergovernmental working group on transnational corporations (IGWG) held its fourth meeting on 15-19 October in Geneva, in order to discuss the Zero Draft for an internationally legally binding instrument to regulate, in international human rights law, the activities of transnational corporations and other business enterprises.

As hundreds of representatives of trade unions, social movements and civil society organisations are gathering in Bali on the sidelines of the Annual Meeting of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank Group, a workshop organised by PSI, Walhi / Friends of the Earth Indonesia, and KSBSI within the framework of the People's Summit for Alternative development, asserts the need for a Binding Treaty on TNCs and IFIs with regard to their Human Rights obligations.

The event held by PSI, with the support from FES, on August 1 and 2 in Panama City, sought to analyze how transnationals capture democracy, manipulate public opinion and seek to control personal data to be used in accordance with their own private interests.

"This is a very serious matter, where a large and professional private health company has taken advantage of our members," says Mette Nord, President of Fagforbundet.

After over a decade of advocacy efforts from civil society and unions, the UN Open-ended Intergovernmental Working Group on Transnational Corporations and other Business Enterprises with respect to Human Rights (OEIGWG), has made available a draft binding instrument on business and human rights.