20 September 2018 - The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is one of the founding partners of the Global Deal. The Organisation has developed the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises. The Guidelines are recommendations on responsible business conduct addressed by governments to businesses operating in, or from, adhering countries. They provide non-binding principles and standards for corporate responsibility in a global context and they are consistent with applicable laws and internationally recognised standards. Social dialogue is embedded in the Guidelines, and the provisions explicitly require companies to consult with social partners as part of their due diligence processes. A unique feature of the Guidelines is their built-in grievance mechanism – the National Contact Points (NCPs).
To investigate how social dialogue can be facilitated through these NCPs, an OECD publication was commissioned by the Global Deal. The result is presented in the document ‘Facilitating Social Dialogue Under the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises’, where a significant number of cases reflect the potential the NCPs have of facilitating social dialogue. When dialogue between companies and stakeholders is broken, NCPs prove a useful resource to bring parties to the table and help define the possible terms of a future agreement. As explained in the publication, this role of NCPs in restoring social dialogue between stakeholders and companies is also important in the context of the Global Deal, to which the OECD actively contributes. Some of these cases are also described in the Global Deal Flagship Report
