Fair treatment of workers

What did we need to do?

We needed to gain a good understanding of the situation and to suggest ways the company could improve its treatment of workers.

What approach did we take?

Although we had previously spoken to the company about its workforce treatment, after these allegations we met again with the company to get a better understanding of the situation and to encourage them to

improve their approach to worker treatment.

We also encouraged the company to exit the content moderation business, which constituted a small part of their total revenues in South America.

The company agreed to exit the content moderation business. It also signed an agreement with a local union on working conditions.

However, the company unexpectedly decided to resume its business in content moderation and additionally acquired a content moderator company.

We met with the company to understand what we saw as a change in its approach and asked how much due diligence had been undertaken into the acquired company’s approach to workforce relations.

What was the outcome?

We were unable to get comfortable that these risks were being managed appropriately. We therefore decided to sell our position in the company.

Although ideally we prefer to influence improvements in company practice, if we think a situation won’t improve, we have to protect members’ capital before our investment is affected by the company’s behaviour.