Norwegian wealth fund to exclude co's over recruitment practices that violate workers' rights in the Middle East
Author: Camilla Knudsen, Reuters, Published on: 10 January 2018
"Norway's wealth fund may blacklist firms over recruitment practices", 9 Jan 2018
The ethics watchdog for Norway’s $1 trillion wealth fund will this year identify companies that violate workers’ rights when hiring people for jobs in the Middle East, and recommend excluding them from the fund’s portfolio.
Companies in the global shipping industry will also face scrutiny and risk being blacklisted if their recycling of obsolete vessels fails to meet certain standards, Johan Andresen, chairman of fund’s ethics panel told Reuters on Tuesday...
“We’re actively working on human rights violations in the Middle East, particularly recruitment practices that put vulnerable people in a position where they have no choice,” Andresen told Reuters...
Recommendations for exclusion are sent to the board of the Norwegian central bank, which manages the fund and must decide whether to sell all shares in a company, or potentially put it on an observation list.