Voyageur Projects
Remediation: Management's labour obligations before introducing climate initiatives
Voyageur Strategies advised Unite the Union Ireland on one of the first complaints dealing with management obligations when introducing environmental policies that impact employment and industrial relations. The National Contact Point on Responsible Business Conduct for the Netherlands (NCP) published its initial assessment in February 2026, accepting the issues as warranting further examination.
The issues involve the Irish operations of a Dutch company group, ASML Holdings. ASML produces lithography systems used in the semiconductor industry. In 2024 ASML informed shareholders of new practices intended to reduce scope 1 and 2 emissions by 90% by 2040. It reported that part of the decision includes “Energy efficiency and climate action: Employee commuting.”
Workers allege they were not engaged about the impacts of the policy change. Concerns about the higher costs of electrical vehicles and the lack of electrical infrastructure at the campus (the project claims it has only 48 EV charging points) would need to be resolved.
The Guidelines Chapter VI (2023) calls for enterprises to engage meaningfully with workers and their representatives before deploying new environmental processes that affect them. The Guidelines bridge the Environmental chapter with the obligations in the Employment and Industrial Relations chapter. The bridge builds workforce buy-in needed for making a responsible climate transition.
In this instance, the board reported the revised car policy to shareholders and relied on engagement with a non-union industry initiative, Responsible Business Alliance (“RBA”) which does not include workers or their representative, Unite.
Additional issues are likely when the international standards are left to voluntary enterprise conduct and non-union initiatives. ASML and the project owner, Intel, are each a member of the RBA. Without labour representation in its governance, RBA members become susceptible to workplace disagreements and Guidelines complaints like we saw in Ireland.
The RBA code of conduct references the OECD Guidelines, UN Guiding Principles, and calls for member companies to participate in legitimate grievance processes. ASML declined two grievance processes offered by government officials in Ireland and the Netherlands.
This case also illustrates the importance of legal consistency with international treaties like the Guidelines. It is not enough for governments to assume adherence. Leaving employment and industrial relations laws open to business initiatives and management interpretation is a recipe for conflict and unresolved adverse impacts.
Lessons for improving Guidelines implementation:
1. Enterprises need to understand their own Guidelines obligations cannot be waived by participating in industry initiatives.
2. Before approving operational changes, boards of directors should ask management to confirm that meaningful engagement with affected workers and their representatives has happened. If not, the Board should instruct management to do so.
3. So long as domestic law does not specifically prevent implementation of the OECD Guidelines, an enterprise can, and should, fully adopt them.
Labour policy: App-based drivers and delivery workers
Voyageur Strategies is advising an international association representing app-based transport and delivery workers in 16 countries. The project involves new policy development at the International Labour Organisation and its member countries. Disoriented labour markets have deprived millions of workers of standards. Deeply entrenched practices and institutions will need to be reimagined to keep up with the new working standards for the modern workplaces.
Download the latest app-based transport reporting here.
IAATW App-mediated industrial relations
Remediation: Disengagement from Myanmar
Voyageur Strategies is advising trade unions in a series of Guidelines complaints dealing with responsible disengagement when systemic Guidelines issues prevent any implementation of the Guidelines. In Myanmar, garment industry workers have been forced to work under the menace of military and police interventions and their legitimate trade unions in exile since 2021. The Guidelines require enterprises to consider disengagement when systemic issues persist. Due diligence processes cannot be effective without meaningful engagement with affected workers. For these reasons, most of the garment industry had already left or made plans to leave.
In 2025, the International Labour Organisation called on its Member countries to work with trade unions and employers to review investments that may enable violations of the ILO Fundamental Principles cited in the OECD Guidelines. Purchasing orders from Myanmar garment factories are precisely the kind of investment that needs to be reviewed. NCPs have the expertise to perform that review. Unions asked the National Contact Point on Responsible Business Conduct for Poland, the United Kingdom, Germany and Belgium to assist by explaining options to their national branded apparel companies. The workers and their chosen trade union prefer disengagement so the military can no longer financially benefit from the garment trade.
Voyageur's position:
1) The Guidelines collapse without a democratic rule of law.
2) Enterprises need to understand they have their own Guidelines obligations regardless of any external industry certifications.
3) All 52 National Contact Points who are also ILO Members should take immediate steps to fulfil the ILO Article 33 obligations and instruct enterprises on to end business in Myanmar until democracy is restored and the international standards can once again be implemented.
