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Joe Hornyak
Former editor of Benefits and Pensions Monitor and founder of Joe Hornyak Communications
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Skepticism Grows Over ESG Disclosure
There is a sharp rise in skepticism and increased scrutiny by Canadian institutional investors of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) initiatives and related disclosure by Canadian issuers, says research by Edelman Smithfield in Canada highlights. The Canadian findings of the fifth annual?‘Edelman Trust Barometer Special Report: Institutional Investors’?show while the majority of Canadian investors surveyed continue to believe that companies that deliver strong ESG performance deserve a premium valuation, the majority question the accuracy of the ESG disclosure they examine, have doubts about companies’ ability to achieve their stated ESG commitments, and are pushing for mandatory and standardized ESG disclosure requirements. David Ryan, managing director of Edelman Smithfield, says, “Over the last several years, the story around ESG has largely focused on investors rewarding companies that led the way with their ESG initiatives. In 2021, investors began looking at ESG through a much more critical lens, with many expressing a lack of confidence in companies’ ability to deliver on their ESG or net-zero commitments. The tone has shifted from interest and appreciation to skepticism and a notable lack of trust in the ESG story.” It found that 72 per cent of Canadian institutional investors do not trust companies to achieve their stated sustainability, ESG, and DEI commitments. Further, three in four Canadian investors admitted to now scrutinizing corporate disclosure looking for incidents of greenwashing or specific examples of companies failing to deliver on their ESG promises.
Health And Safety Overrides Privacy
A Quebec arbitrator has decided the health and safety objectives associated with the workplace vaccination requirement override employees' right to privacy and physical integrity, says a Fasken ‘HR Space.’ A Quebec union challenged the right of employers to collect the vaccination status of their employees on the basis that such collection interfered with employees’ right to privacy under the?‘Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms.’?The union’s position was such an intrusion was not justified since clients did not have any legitimate health and safety objective. The arbitrator decided that employers’ clients are entitled to impose a vaccination requirement on their employees and subcontractors because of their obligation to take all necessary, humane, and reasonable measures to protect the health and safety of workers in their establishment. The vaccination requirement adopted by the clients and applicable to its employees and subcontractors is justified in order to reduce the risks of spreading COVID-19. The arbitrator also considered that since an unvaccinated employee represents a risk to himself (since he is potentially exposed to COVID-19 and to the most serious effects of the disease) as well as to other employees when he is in the workplace (since he is a more significant vector of transmission than a vaccinated employee), he is, in principle, in breach of his obligations under the OHSA (Occupational Health and Safety Act. Although a vaccination requirement may infringe on the privacy and physical integrity of the affected employees, the arbitrator said this infringement is justified under the charter. Indeed, the charter specifically provides that the rights and freedoms of an individual may be limited on the basis of public order and the general well-being of the citizens of Quebec, which is the case in a global pandemic situation. The "prejudice" or "inconvenience" that may be suffered by unvaccinated employees in the workplace weighs much more heavily on the "general well-being" of other people who frequent the same place and who, while being vaccinated, may be infected by the virus and suffer, as well as those around them than it does for employees who will be called upon to disclose a part of their private life, namely their vaccination status.
For details on these stories, visit www.bpmmagazine.com