"Love Moschino and OVS Face OECD Complaint Over Myanmar"

... An Italian civil society group has filed a complaint against Love Moschino and OVS for maintaining production in Myanmar despite deteriorating labor conditions in the military-ruled nation.

Writing to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s Italian National Contact Point, Italia-Birmana Insieme charged the brands with flouting the intergovernmental organization’s guidelines for responsible business conduct by multinational enterprises, including respecting the right of workers to organize and collectively bargain...

Love Moschino and OVS did not respond to requests for comment...

“Given the small number of orders currently made in Myanmar, OVS could very easily abandon production there; however, while it is possible, the company will be maintaining a limited presence in Myanmar, suspending any business with suppliers who carry out discriminatory acts against workers involved in protest actions,” it said at the time. “OVS has always placed respect for and protection of human rights at the heart of its activities, together with ethical action and transparency.”

Love Moschino’s parent company Moschino, responding to allegations of abuse at its Burmese suppliers in 2022, told the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre that it carries out its operations in “full accordance with the human rights and with the full respect of the principles of the United Nations Universal Declaration, the International Labour Organization Conventions, the OECD guidelines and the Charter of Fundamental Rights.”

“In addition, within the scope of its various licensing relationships, Moschino requires…its licensees to respect the human rights and to comply with the indications and with the rules contained in the abovementioned code and precepts,” it said.

Khaing Zar Aung, the exiled president of the Industrial Workers’ Federation Of Myanmar, which worked with Italia-Birmana Insieme on the complaint, said that fundamental rights at work have been under attack since the start of the coup. She also denounced a European Union-backed initiative designed to prop up business practices in the country as “whitewashing” that provides space for “fake trade unions and a fake social dialogue.”...