Deutsche Telekom CSR Report “Misleading”

The “Corporate Social Responsibility” report released last week by German telecoms giant Deutsche Telekom contains misleading corporate spin, according to the ITUC. The report claims that, on issues such as training, employment and offshoring, “Of course, we involve employee representatives when making all of these decisions.”

Sharan Burrow, ITUC General Secretary, said “This claim may be true in Deutsche Telekom’s operations in Germany, but it is blatantly false outside the company’s home country. In the US for example, its T-Mobile subsidiary is actively trying to stop its workforce getting union representation, using all the tricks of the notorious union-avoidance business. It is alarming that this company, which is in the process of dismissing thousands of call-centre workers in its US operations, is putting such a huge effort into denying it’s employees legitimate representation. Deutsche Telekom should respect international labour standards across its global operations and stop making public statements which directly contradict the real facts.”

The ITUC and UNI Global Union are supporting the US communication workers’ union CWA and its German counterpart ver.di in a campaign to convince Deutsche Telekom to cease its anti-union activities in the US and elsewhere, and allow all its global workforce choose union representation without interference.

For more information, see: www.weexpectbetter.org