We, the undersigned business organisations [Business at OECD, Intl. Chamber of Commerce, Electronic Industry Citizenship Coalition, Foreign Trade Association, Intl. Council on Mining and Metals, Intl. Organisation of Employers], are writing to voice our serious concerns about two ISO developments on social responsibility: (1) a proposal to create a new ISO Technical Committee [TC] on Social Responsibility; and (2) the possibility that the Technical Management Board (TMB) will revise ISO 26000: 2010 at its September meeting...

We believe that this broad proposal [on a ISO TC]...will not advance the field of social responsibility and, instead...will create divergence with existing authoritative standards, as well as confusion among business.

Our concerns on the proposal's scope, ambition, usefulness and likely outcomes mirror those outlined in the joint IOE/ITUC letter and we strongly encourage ISO members to vote against it by the deadline of 10 October 2017...