Workers file complaint with OECD against eyewear giant

On 15 July 2021, national and international labour groups filed a complaint under the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises alleging severe violations of workers’ freedom of association rights at the Luxottica manufacturing and distribution centre in McDonough, Georgia, USA.
The Communications Workers of American (CWA), joined by the AFL-CIO and two Geneva-based global unions, say that Luxottica plant managers in Georgia have unleashed an aggressive, fear-inducing campaign to thwart workers’ organising rights, and that global management in Paris and Milan have failed to exercise due diligence to ensure compliance with OECD guidelines.
Luxottica is a division of the EssilorLuxottica group, the world’s largest provider of vision care and eyewear products, serving a global market with over 150,000 employees around the world. The Luxottica manufacturing and distribution centre in Georgia employs 2,000 U.S. workers.
The unions’ complaint cites management’s use of a company-issued app called “LiveSafe”. It was meant to inform workers on COVID-19 issues in the workplace, but instead management uses it to send anti-union broadsides about purported “risks” of union organising, including that workers might lose pay and benefits if they succeed in forming a union. In addition to the app, management has created an anti-union website vilifying unions and suggesting dire consequences if workers sign a union card or choose representation. The company also has hired anti-union consultants and required workers to attend mandatory, union-bashing “captive-audience” meetings with no opportunity for response by union supporters.