|
The brands are our references. They want to be our friends, fill our imagination, bring self-fulfilment and relief, promise success and happiness. They claim they help build a better world. Beyond the image, what is the reality?
Ethi
shop compares brands « ethics ».
Ethi
shop also compares the price of products sold under these brands.
« Ethical » criteria
The rating takes into account data from the whole group: the company and all subsidiaries whose stock is held at more than 50%.
Social: social impact of the company
Labor:
Number of violations of Labor fundamental norms: child labor, forced labor, sexual or racial discrimination, anti-union practices, salaries below living wage, violation of the maximum working hour in the industry.
Arguable practice: The sport shoes branded New Balance are currently manufactured in China by people working from 14 to 16 hours per day, six to seven days per week for wages of 0,3 US$ an hour. New Balance belongs to only one person: Jim Davis living in the United States with a fortune exceeding 1,6 billion dollar.
Acceptable practice: Respect the fundamental labour conventions: 1 for a ceiling of the working time, 29 and 105 against the forced labour, 87 and 98 for free association in trade union, 100 against discrimination and 111 for the equal pay, 138 and 182 against child labour, 131 for the respect of the minimum wage; and it fair labor standards act where the company and its subcontractors are installed. Produce for the local market, this also reduces the environmental cost of international transport.
Human:
Number of violations of fundamental Human norms: forced displacement of population, financing of terrorists and paramilitary groups, destruction of villages, assassination of opponents and complicity in all theses crims (money laundering).
Arguable practice: The employees of a Coca Cola's subsidiary in Colombia charge the company management with hiring paramilitaries to assassinate their trade-union representative. Their complaint was considered to be admissible by a judge of the United States, the lawsuit is in progress.
Acceptable practice: Respect the UN Pact for economic, social and cultural Rights and the universal Declaration of the Humans right of Office of the High Commission to the Humans Rights. For financial, legal and consulting companies, no laundering of criminal money.
Jobs1998+:
Part of the company's employees laid off from 1998 to the guide publication, following hiring, restructuring, outsourcing or relocation.
Arguable practice: between 1998 and 2003, Boeing cut a third of its manpower, 71 000 out of 231 000 jobs, while cashing nearly 10 billion dollars of net profit during this period.
Acceptable practice: Prefer employment at unspecified duration and favor local production rather than a strong short-term profitability.
Finance: financial impact of the company
BN1998+:
Cumulated net profits since 1998 in billion US$ (compare with Jobs1998+)
Arguable practice: Exclusively financial objective or also social and environmental?
Acceptable practice: Favor the investment, in particular in the reduction of the social and environmental impact of the activity rather than high dividends or high stock buybacks. The authorities must ensure that the free competition prevents the emergence of oligopolies and cartels.
Sales:
Annual sales in billion US$ (compare with the annual budget of a country like France: app. 270 billion euros)
Arguable practice: some giant companies dominate the world... The annual sales of Wal-Mart, controlled by a family of Kansas in the United States, reach already the annual budget of France, a country of 60 million inhabitants (approximately 300 billion euros).
Acceptable practice: Break apart conglomerate into autonomous companies. The authorities must limit the companies' economic power to prevent that their influence does not harm the general interest.
Management:
The top manager (CEO, CFO or President of the Board) earnings compared to the employee's minimum wage in the US (6 US$ / hour).
Arguable practice: the CEO of a large company makes in one day what an employee earns in one year... The termination bonuses of certain chairmen reach sometimes several hundreds of million euros.
Acceptable practice: At the beginning of the XXe century, the American banker John P. Morgan estimated that a chairmanshould not earn more than twenty times the average salary of his employees... The amount of the "attendance fees" to the boards of directors, currently of 50000 US dollars for a one half-day long council, must also be reduced. The chairmen should not cumulate the profit-sharing in the form of stock-options and safety of a golden parachute.
Offshore:
Number of offshore financial centers in which the company has set up subsidiaries: tax javen (no tax on profits, duties, VAT, etc.), secret bank accounts, trusts, international business corporations (the company sets up subsidiaries in these territories to decrease its taxes and avoid penal and civil liability)
Arguable practice: Thanks to a shell company in Ireland, Microsoft saves each year 500 million euros of European tax. Enron filed for bankruptcy and laid off 40000 employees after having hidden 70 billion dollars of debts in its 690 subsidiaries in the Cayman Islands, a tax haven in the Caribbean.
Acceptable practice: No tax "optimisation", pay the tax on the activity in the country where it is really done.
Delinquency:
Number of acts of financial delinquency: accounting fraud to inflate profits and stock value, mislead shareholders or avoid tax, market sharing with competitors to sell at a higher price, IPO fraud, audit errors (ex. Enron, Parmalat, Worldcom, Healthsouth, Tyco etc.)
Arguable practice: Amaranth, Enron, Worldcom, Adelphia, Tyco, AIG etc.
Acceptable practice: Respect the financial laws and regulations, communicate with sincerity on the accounts and forecasts of the company.
Environment : impact on the environment
Pollution:
Number of major pollutions: tanker wreck, explosion on a refinery, hazardous product spill or emission, asbestos, contamination with genetically modified organisms, with bacteria (listeria, salmonella), hidden secondary effects of drugs ...
Arguable practice: Exxon Valdez, Union Carbide in Bhopal (India), Monsanto's GM products, Coca Cola's, oil and mining companies...
Acceptable practice: Respect the laws and regulations on environmental protection, know the impact of the activity and the products lifecycle on the environment, favor the reduction of this impact rather than a high net profit.
Public policy: impact on the community
Influence:
Number of act of direct or indirect corruption: hidden influence of the company on the enaction of national and international laws and regulations: membership to major and effective lobby groups, corruption of public servant or political figures.
Arguable practice: contracts in Iraq obtained by Halliburton, recently headed by the current vice-president of the United States Richard Cheney, which enabled him to double its sales between 2002 and 2004...
Acceptable practice: Publish and communicate all the requests to the authorities, do not give money or secretly influence political leaders and civil servants.
Image:
Number of dubious communication practices: arguable partnership, deceptive advertising, disinformation, commercial invasion, spying, mishandling of private data, biopiracy and appropriation of public knowledge.
Arguable practice: partnership between a company with highly polluting practices and an association of environmental protection, hiring of a public relation agency to hide the reality of the company's practices, loss or leak on the internet of customers private data such credit card numbers, number of social security numbers, health information, spending habits...
Acceptable practice: Do not hide the social and environmental impact of the company's activity by public relation campaigns, do not to finance associations, pay the tax due to allow the authorities to solve the problems of the community, do not advertise to less than 6 years-old children, not to steal the public knowledge.
All data backed by public sources. Data is provided by Transnationale & Cie, company rating and information agency. Data come from public and verified sources. For more details, visit http://www.transnationale.org.
|
|
