Beer, conflict and compensation: Heineken-Congo agreement

摘要

Doing business in conflict areas is challenging for everyone, whether you are talking about mining or even brewing beer. In 2015 a group of 168 former workers of Heineken's subsidiary Bralima in the Democratic Republic of Congo submitted a complaint to the Dutch National Contact Point (NCP), a grievance mechanism set up under the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises, about the company's conduct during the civil war in that country (1999-2003). The complaint concerned allegations of Bralima unjustly dismissing its workers and coperating with the rebel movement in RCD-Goma, and the negative consequences this had for the firm's workers and their families.