On 11 February 2020 the Netherlands National Contact Point for the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises (‘the Guidelines’) published a final statement further to a specific instance submitted by UNI Global Union (UNI) against VEON. The issues raised concerned VEON and its operations in Bangladesh (Banglalink) with regard to the registration of the Banglalink Employees Union (BLEU). The NCP previously offered a dialogue between the parties on the workers’ freedom of association at Banglalink and on mechanisms that would improve the company’s due diligence monitoring and response throughout the VEON group. The NCP procedure in this specific instance has not led to a dialogue between the parties.

The NCP recommended that an evaluation should be conducted one year after the publication of the final statement of the NCP’s forward looking recommendations...

The evaluation started in April 2021, with the request of the NCP to both parties to provide written information for the purpose of the evaluation...

The draft of this evaluation was shared with the parties for their comments within 14 days...

The NCP concludes that, although VEON has put in place Group policies and a Code of Conduct in order to ensure active participation of its workers worldwide, these still don’t seem to recognize the “fundamental right of workers to have trade unions and representative organisations for the purpose of collective bargaining and that enterprises should engage in constructive negotiations with such representatives with a view on reaching agreements on terms and conditions of employment”, as the OECD Guidelines chapter V, art 1 under b stipulate. The NCP is of the opinion that VEON’s policies and/or Code of Conduct should make reference to the core labour rights of freedom of association and the right to collective bargaining as enabling rights. The NCP urges VEON to update its policies and include this...

The NCP cannot judge if, how and to what extent VEON has in fact used its leverage on its subsidiary Banglalink to ensure the right of Banglalink’s employees to freedom of association in line with the Guidelines. The NCP points out that Banglalink is a 100% owned subsidiary of VEON, meaning the parent company has the strongest possible ownership control. However, the NCP repeats that VEON has clear obligations under the Guidelines and urges VEON to exercise its leverage to the maximum extent possible...

It seems that VEON misunderstands the relevance of fundamental international labour standards, which have to be honoured beyond the applicability of national law and regulation. The NCP, on the basis of the information provided during the evaluation, finds that VEON has not adequately addressed any of the NCP recommendations...