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The Implementation of International Codes of Conduct for Multinational Enterprises

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 May 2009

Pieter Sanders
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Extract

Multinational Enterprises (MNE's) are confronted with a growing number of Codes of Conduct. So far these Codes are all of a so-called voluntary character and not legally binding. Nevertheless the MNE's – also referred to as transnational corporations (TNC's) – are increasingly confronted with the rules of conduct expressed in these Codes. It is a subject area which is still in its early stage and developing constantly.

Type
Articles
Information
Netherlands International Law Review , Volume 28 , Issue 3 , December 1981 , pp. 318 - 332
Copyright
Copyright © T.M.C. Asser Press 1981

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References

1. The OECD-Code 1976 and the 1979 revision (Review) are available from OECD Publications, 2 rue André Pascal, 75775 Paris 16.

2. The ILO-Code is available from ILO Publications, International Labour Office, CH-1211 Geneva 22.

3. UN Document TD/RBP/Conf.10, May 2, 1980. This document has been published in 1981 as UN Publication, Sales no. E.81.II.D.5.

4. UN Document E/C 10/AC 2/14, 21 March 1980, UN Commission on Transnational Corporations.

5. Draft International Code of Conduct on the Transfer of Technology as cf., April 10, 1981 (UN Doc. TD/Code ToT/33).

6. In this sense, Dr. Th. Vogelaar in his analysis of the legal nature of the OECD-Code, which was accepted unanimously by 23 countries (with the only abstention being Turkey). See his article on the OECD Guidelines, in Legal Problems of Codes of Conduct for Multinational Enterprises (Deventer, 1980) p. 135 seqGoogle Scholar. and again his article Multinational Corporations and International Law in 27 NILR (1980) p. 77Google Scholar.

7. An indication of this can be found in Court of Appeal Amsterdam, June 21, 1979 (NJ 1980 no. 71) in the case of BATCO. The Court considered that “finally it is not without significance that British American Tobacco has accepted the OECD Guidelines as guideline for its policy”.

8. Recommendation of the Council of July 20, 1978, Annex II to the Review pamphlet (1979), mentioned in n. 1 supra.

9. Loc.cit., in n. 1, p. 37, among others.

10. Para. 79 of the OECD Review 1979 (see n. 1). In the Netherlands, for example, discussions take place in an interdepartemental working group with representatives of employer- and labour-organizations.

11. Committee report, 1979 revision, para. 84. Emphasis supplied.

12. Committee report, para. 85.

13. This is not to say that there cannot be practical results. The Badger-case (the responsibility of a parent company for a Belgian subsidiary) and the Hertz-case (transfer of personnel from a branch in another country for the purpose of strike-breaking in Denmark) prove the opposite.

14. The Hertz-case of 1977 led to a change in the Chapter of the Guidelines entitled “Employment and Industrial Relations”, see new para. 8, Guidelines.

15. Section G “International Machinery” under 4.

16. The Belgian Government in the Badger-cast, the Danish in the Hertz-case, and the Dutch Government in the BATCO affair.

17. It can be found on pp. 16–18 (para. 85) of the report of the Governing Body Committee, to the Governing Body (ILO-document GB 214/6/3).

18. 28 Governments, 14 representatives of the employers and 14 representatives of the labour organizations.

19. The Group of 77 produced as of June 8, 1981, Working Paper no. 21 containing a draft of the Code and dealing in its Chapter VI with Implementation and Institutional Machinery.

20. Point e has not been taken over in the proposal of the Group of 77 in its Working Paper no. 21 of June 8, 1981, referred to in n. 19.