A Swedish investment company has put Coca-Cola on its list of bad corporate citizens. The US soft drink giant landed on Stockholm-based GES Investment Services list of global companies behaving badly for violating rules on the environment, human rights and labour laws, the ANNCOL-agency reports Sunday.
GES cites reports of acts of violence, anti-union dismissals and murders of trade-union officials at the Coca-Cola bottler plants in Colombia. GES Investment Services is one of Europes leading analysis companies for socially responsible investments and corporate governance.
However, Coca-Cola spokeperson Lori Billingsley told the New York Post that Coke has “provided detailed facts to GES regarding the false allegations that have been made against the Coca-Cola business in Colombia.”
Paramilitaries acting with at least tacit approval of Colombian Coca-Cola officials are suspected in the murder of seven Coca-Cola unionists in recent years and the kidnapping and torture of others.
According to the Colombian Trade Union Confederation, CUT, about 3.600 union members have been killed in the last two decades, most allegedly at the hands of army-backed right-wing paramilitaries.
GES said that its list is based on the prerequisite that companies have a responsibility to comply with international norms even though they are not legally bound to.
Blacklisted companies, however, are assumed to have violated basic international norms such as the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights or ILO Core Conventions.
In case the company does not admit responsibility, GES only blacklists if an examination by a UN body confirms the connection between the company and the reported breach, or if sanctions against the company is issued by a court.
Kilde: ANNCOL
