Read the final statement issued by the UK NCP concluding the specific instance - 20 November 2009

In March 2009, the UK NCP received a request for review from International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers’ Association (IUF) alleging that Unilever Pakistan Ltd, a subsidiary of Unilever PLC, (Unilever) had breached the general policies and employment and industrial relations provisions of the Guidelines. More specifically, IUF alleged that Unilever had deliberately constructed a system of employment at its Khanewal factory based almost exclusively on temporary workers and was refusing to change the temporary workers’ statuts to permanent after the mandatory period, which had an important impact on access to collective bargaining and benefits.

The UK NCP appointed an external conciliator-mediator, which chaired two conciliation meetings in October 2009. Mediation was not required as the parties agreed on a mutually acceptable solution to the complaint through conciliation.The full text of the agreement is attached to the final statement issued by the NCP when they concluded the specific instance.