Walmart, Coca-Cola, Rio Tinto Pressured by Investors on Workforce Transparency

   By Maitane Sardon 
 

A coalition of investors with over $14 trillion in assets under management is calling for some of the world's biggest companies to provide better data on how they manage their staff and workers in supply chains.

Walmart Inc. (WMT), Novartis AG (NOVN.EB), Rio Tinto PLC (RIO.LN), Coca-Cola Co. (KO), Royal Bank of Canada (RY.T), BP PLC (BP.LN) and Siemens AG (SIE.XE) are among the 750 companies being pressed by the group of investors backing the initiative.

In a letter sent to the companies, the signatories are asking for more standardized data on issues such as health and safety, workers' rights, diversity and wage levels.

Amundi SA (AMUN.FR), Legal & General Investment Management, AMP Capital, APG, Rockefeller & Co, PKA Denmark, BMO GAM and First State Super are some of the investors pushing the companies for greater disclosures and comparable data they can use in their investment decisions.

While climate change continues to be the biggest concern for investors using environmental, social and governance criteria, investment professionals around the world have shown growing concern over poor disclosure and a lack of standardized data on social issues such as supply chain and labor standards.

Research by Natixis Investment Management has shown that institutional investors believe integrating ESG can help them mitigate exposure to social risks that traditional financial analysis doesn't capture.

"The Workforce Disclosure Initiative is a valuable tool to help us improve our understanding of workforce risks and engage with companies to adopt emerging best practice," said Elly Irving, head of engagement at Schroders, a U.K. asset manager. She said Schroders is seeing progress on issues ranging from climate change to cybersecurity but that there is little transparency on workforce issues.

Through previous initiatives, the coalition of investors have already secured disclosures from some of the world's largest firms, including MasterCard Inc. (MA), Nestle SA (NESN.EB), BHP, Toyota Motor Corp. (TM), HSBC Holdings PLC (HSBC), adidas AG (ADS.XE) and AT&T Inc. (T).

Write to Maitane Sardon at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 01, 2019 01:14 ET (05:14 GMT)

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