{"id":30639,"date":"2023-11-22T13:51:20","date_gmt":"2023-11-22T13:51:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/?p=30639"},"modified":"2023-11-22T13:53:01","modified_gmt":"2023-11-22T13:53:01","slug":"nyc-comptroller-ny-comptroller-urges-ebays-bod-to-take-swift-action-ensure-that-company-management-comply-with-ebays-stated-hr-policy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/archives\/30639","title":{"rendered":"NYC, NY Comptrollers urge eBay\u2019s BoD to take swift action, ensure that company management comply with eBay\u2019s stated HR Policy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>New York: New York City Comptroller Brad Lander and New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli penned a joint letter to eBay\u2019s Board of Directors urging them to take swift action and ensure that company management complies with eBay\u2019s stated Human Rights Policy as well as restore key language they removed from describing their commitment to workers\u2019 rights. Specifically, the company\u2019s current statement removed the following language: \u201ceBay also respects workers\u2019 rights to unionize and commits to bargain in good faith with any relevant associations or labor unions.&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cCompanies thrive when their workers are supported and respected,\u201d said New York Comptroller Lander. \u201cThe stealthy removal of the language expressly referencing the fundamental freedom of workers to unionize threatens eBay\u2019s legacy and deepened our concern as shareholders. Either eBay ignored our previous concerns or responded by removing the language about respect for workers&#8217; rights and good faith bargaining without telling anybody\u2013I&#8217;m not sure which would be worse. We urge the board to genuinely engage with us now. and I am thankful to Comptroller DiNapoli for his commitment to ensuring that we hold companies accountable for their promises.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;When companies are accused of acting contrary to their stated principles and policies, it prompts concerns among shareholders,\u201d New York State Comptroller DiNapoli said. \u201ceBay should be working to build constructive and positive bonds with its workforce, not removing commitments to fundamental human rights. Alongside Comptroller Lander, we encourage companies to uphold their commitments on labor rights, safeguarding employees and shareholder value. We strongly urge eBay to do just that.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The comptrollers\u2019 letter notes that despite the company\u2019s removal of the language, the current policy conveys plainly that eBay must strive to conduct business consistent with the principles set forth in the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and the International Labour Organization (ILO) Fundamental Conventions. International human rights and labor standards include freedom of association and collective bargaining that are fundamental worker rights. The New York City and New York State pension funds are long-term investors in eBay, with 2.5 million shares in the company valued at $111 million as of June 30, 2023.<\/p>\n<p>A group of investors including Comptrollers Lander and DiNapoli previously raised concern in June regarding reports of violations of worker rights at eBay subsidiary TCGPlayer, the online trading card marketplace and seller of games including Magic: The Gathering, Pok\u00e9mon, Yu-Gi-Oh and more. In that letter to eBay Board Chair Paul S. Pressler and CEO Jamie Lannone, the Comptrollers and other signatories expressed concern over an apparent misalignment between eBay\u2019s stated human rights commitments and the conduct of management. In response to allegations of management\u2019s violation of U.S. labor law by surveilling employees at work, holding anti-union meetings, and noting employees who displayed support for the union at TCGPlayer, the company has seemingly altered the language of the Human Rights Policy to align with management&#8217;s actions.<\/p>\n<p>Comptrollers Lander and DiNapoli gave eBay until December 4 to respond to this correspondence.<\/p>\n<p>As of June 30, 2023, both pension funds collectively hold more than $500 billion in assets under managemen<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>New York: New York City Comptroller Brad Lander and New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli penned a joint letter to eBay\u2019s Board of Directors urging them to take swift action and ensure that company management complies with eBay\u2019s stated Human Rights Policy as well as restore key language they removed from describing their commitment [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":30640,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1469,31,1378,37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30639","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-new-york","category-news","category-us","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30639","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30639"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30639\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30643,"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30639\/revisions\/30643"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30640"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30639"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}