Walmart, Coca-Cola, Rio Tinto Pressured by Investors on Workforce Transparency
July 01 2019 - 1:29AM
Dow Jones News
By Maitane Sardon
A coalition of investors with over $14 trillion in assets under
management is calling for some of the world's biggest companies to
provide better data on how they manage their staff and workers in
supply chains.
Walmart Inc. (WMT), Novartis AG (NOVN.EB), Rio Tinto PLC
(RIO.LN), Coca-Cola Co. (KO), Royal Bank of Canada (RY.T), BP PLC
(BP.LN) and Siemens AG (SIE.XE) are among the 750 companies being
pressed by the group of investors backing the initiative.
In a letter sent to the companies, the signatories are asking
for more standardized data on issues such as health and safety,
workers' rights, diversity and wage levels.
Amundi SA (AMUN.FR), Legal & General Investment Management,
AMP Capital, APG, Rockefeller & Co, PKA Denmark, BMO GAM and
First State Super are some of the investors pushing the companies
for greater disclosures and comparable data they can use in their
investment decisions.
While climate change continues to be the biggest concern for
investors using environmental, social and governance criteria,
investment professionals around the world have shown growing
concern over poor disclosure and a lack of standardized data on
social issues such as supply chain and labor standards.
Research by Natixis Investment Management has shown that
institutional investors believe integrating ESG can help them
mitigate exposure to social risks that traditional financial
analysis doesn't capture.
"The Workforce Disclosure Initiative is a valuable tool to help
us improve our understanding of workforce risks and engage with
companies to adopt emerging best practice," said Elly Irving, head
of engagement at Schroders, a U.K. asset manager. She said
Schroders is seeing progress on issues ranging from climate change
to cybersecurity but that there is little transparency on workforce
issues.
Through previous initiatives, the coalition of investors have
already secured disclosures from some of the world's largest firms,
including MasterCard Inc. (MA), Nestle SA (NESN.EB), BHP, Toyota
Motor Corp. (TM), HSBC Holdings PLC (HSBC), adidas AG (ADS.XE) and
AT&T Inc. (T).
Write to Maitane Sardon at maitane.sardon@dowjones.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
July 01, 2019 01:14 ET (05:14 GMT)
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