IKEA, Juncker, Samsung, Plachutta, Henry am Zug und Eterna für Schandfleck des Jahres nominiert
IKEA, Juncker, Samsung, Plachutta, Henry am Zug and Eterna nominated for the „Eyesore of the year“
Subtitle: online voting until february 18 at www.schandfleck.or.at!
Vienna, 19.01.2015. For the third time the Network Social Responsibility (NeSoVe) awards the “Eyesore of the year” – price for socially irresponsible companies, organizations, institutions and individuals.
Six cases are shortlisted this year:
1. The Castella GmbH (henceforth Eterna GmbH) for reckless real estate speculation in the context of the eviction of the “Pizzeria Anarchia” on 28 July 2014 under a large contingency of 1,454 police officers in the Mühlfeldgasse 12 in Vienna Leopoldstadt.
2. Henry am Zug, the catering service in ÖBB trains, because of wage dumping. Many employees work also in Austria, but are paid by Hungarian conditions. This is just a third of the salary of their Austrian colleagues.
3. IKEA because of the contradiction between appearance and reality. While IKEA presents itself as a particularly sustainable company, the campany and its suppliers attract negative attention by violating workers’ rights; further IKEA is using Sustainability Seals, which are criticized as greenwashing and misleading the public; finally, IKEA is a textbook example of how taxes can be saved with all imaginable tricks.
4. Jean-Claude Juncker for effective tax avoidance policy. In Luxembourg the current President of the European Commission has pushed a special finance and tax policy as finance and prime minister. Due to this policy companies need to pay little or no taxes.
5. The Plachutta group because of disrespectful treatment of the employee Tatara. The managing director Mario Plachutta dismissed summarily the waiter Juraj Tatara, because he wanted to sweeten its strawberries with 50 grams of Plachutta‘s sugarInadmissibly due to a Labour Court decision.
6. Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., because of work accidents and health hazards particularly in the supply chain of Samsung. From 2007 August 2014, 289 cases of occupational diseases were found alone in the Korean IT industry, of which 232 are directly or indirectly attributable to Samsung.
“With the eyesore of the year, we want to set an example and show irresponsable acting companies, organizations and individuals so that the civil society is aware of their behaviour”, says Marieta Kaufmann, director of network social responsibility.
Franz Fiala, chairman of the network complemented: “Of course, the Eyesore of the year is also addressed to policy makers. A fundamental shift towards a socially and environmentally sustainable society requires first and foremost a legal framework that garantees minimum standards in the areas of workers’ rights, ecology, gender equality and human rights. ”
Last year, the Jury Award was given to the Federal Theatre Holding as it has outsourced the employment of 400 square contenders to the security firm G4S which has a highly controversial human rights record. The Public Award was given to the ANDRITZ Hydro GmbH for continuous engagement in dam projects which are problematic in terms of human rights and ecology.
From January 19 to February 18 the civil society can vote for the Public Award (www.schandfleck.or.at).
The awards (Public and Jury Award) will be presented on the World Day of Social Justice, 20 February 2015, in a public event hosted at the OFF-theater in Vienna Neubau.
Additional Information:
www.schandfleck.or.at
www.nesove.at
Contact:
Mag Laura Gruber
Network Social Responsibility
c / o Südwind
Laudongasse 40
A-1080 Wien
Email laura.gruber@sozialeverantwortung.at
Tel: 0664 750 76 280