InBev in the Dock at OECD: IUF Complaint Charges World's Largest Brewer with Serious Rights Violations

Posted to the IUF website 10-Jul-2006

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The IUF on July 7 formally charged the Belgian-based global brewer InBev with violations of the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises. The action involves a formal submission to the OECD National Contact Point in Belgium - InBev's corporate home - documenting repeated violations of national and international law and specific breaches of the OECD Guidelines at the company's subsidiary in Montenegro (click here for full background).

The submission shows that InBev's aggressive union-busting at the Trebjesa brewery - including the retaliatory sacking of striking union members, the firing of the elected union President Bozidar Perovic, and management hijacking of the union election and grievance procedures - was buttressed with threats of disinvestment in the facility unless Perovic were permanently barred from employment and even entering the plant. OECD Guidelines specifically prohibit the threat of production transfers by management in the course of an industrial dispute. The company has also willfully ignored two Montenegrin court rulings establishing that Perovic's dismissal was blatantly illegal.

The submission seeks the rapid intervention of the OECD representative in Belgium to facilitate an end to the anti-union campaign and direct negotiations between the IUF, InBev and the IUF's Montenegrin affiliate for the reinstatement, with full compensation, of union leader Perovic.