http://www.aftenposten.no/english/business/article2422108.ece
Telenor, Peace Prize winner caught in labour scandal
A Danish TV documentary has revealed miserable working conditions and
environmental violations at companies in Bangladesh that act as
suppliers to GrameenPhone, which is co-owned by Norwegian telecoms firm
Telenor and firms founded by Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus.
The documentary shows miserable working conditions at several firms
supplying Telenor-owned GrameenPhone. Hard-hats were donned when Telenor
came to inspect.
PHOTO: TELENOR
Telenor's Baksaas with Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus.
Together, they own GrameenPhone, although Yunus has wanted Telenor to
reduce its stake.
PHOTO: TELENOR
Related stories:
Telenor may cut stake in Grameenphone - 03.04.2007
Yunus to help Norway launch micro-credit in Africa - 02.04.2007
Telenor rejects Yunus offer - 29.03.2007
Hundreds hail prize winners - 11.12.2006
Telenor conflict puts a damper on Peace Prize party - 10.12.2006
'Deeply honoured' Peace Prize winner slams war in Iraq - 10.12.2006
Nobel Peace Prize winner came as a surprise - 13.10.2006
Banker for the poor wins Nobel Peace Prize - 13.10.2006
It's an embarrassing labour scandal for Telenor, which itself is
majority-owned by the government of Norway, a country that prides itself
on championing fair labour conditions and human rights.
It also reflects poorly on Grameen Telecom and Grameen Bank, which own
38 percent of GrameenPhone (Telenor has 62 percent) and which were
founded by Peace Prize-winner Yunus not least to help lift people in
Bangladesh out of abject poverty through the micro-credit system.
The documentary, made by Danish journalist Tom Heinemann and to be aired
on Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK) Thursday evening, reveals shocking
working conditions at the firms supplying GrameenPhone. Employees were
shown working with hazardous chemicals and heavy metals virtually
without protection. Workers were as young as 13 years, a clear violation
of child labour laws. The firms were caught allowing polluted wastewater
to spill into nearby rice fields.
And in one case, a worker was killed when he fell into an unsecured pool
of acid.
Telenor, clearly believing that the best defense is a good offense,
opted to reveal some of the findings of the documentary even before it
was aired. Telenor officials claim they were shaken by the documentary's
findings, and admit they failed to adequately monitor the operations of
GrameenPhone's suppliers.
"We are deeply moved by the case, and the human side of it," Telenor
chief executive Jon Fredrik Baksaas told reporters. He called the labour
violations "completely unacceptable," claiming Telenor had trained the
firms in health and safety issues. "But we've clearly been bad about
following up afterwards," Baksaas admitted.
He neglected to mention the worker fatality, but confirmed it when
questioned by a reporter from Danish newspaper Berlingske Tidende.
Telenor and the Norwegian state have generated huge profits on
GrameenPhone, which has as many as 20 million customers, but Baksaas
said he didn't feel badly that the operation earns a lot on the work of
poor employees. "We haven't taken out substantial dividends on what
we've earned in Bangladesh," Baksaas said. "The money has gone into
investments that are building up the country."
Norway's government minister in charge of business and industry, Dag
Terje Andersen, wrote in an e-mail to Aftenposten that the working
conditions shown in the documental "assuming they are accurate, clearly
are unacceptable."
Andersen claimed, however, that Telenor has worked actively for years to
make its own ethical regulations part of all operations, also those at
suppliers. "It looks like the follow-up on the part of Telenor was
inadequate," he wrote. Telenor has since conducted inspections at five
suppliers of mobile telephone masts, and has fired one of them.
Telenor and Yunus have been involved in a long-simmering conflict over
ownership of GrameenPhone. Yunus has wanted Telenor to reduce its stake.
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