Norway SWF Backs Nike Shareholder Plea On Workers' Rights

Norway’s wealth fund will support a proposal urging Nike to examine whether binding agreements with workers would improve its ability to address human rights issues in high-risk countries, the fund announced, Louise Rasmussen and Helen Reid reported for Reuters.

The proposal argues that Nike lags behind competitors like Adidas and Puma because it has not signed legally binding agreements between brands and trade unions, such as the Pakistan Accord. I Photo: Nike

The support of the $1.7 trillion fund, Nike’s ninth-largest shareholder, provides a major boost to the proposal, which argues that Nike lags behind competitors like Adidas and Puma because it has not signed legally binding agreements between brands and trade unions, such as the Pakistan Accord.

Nike has recommended that investors vote against the proposal, which was put forward by Domini Impact Equity Fund.

Shareholders are expected to vote at Nike’s annual meeting on Sept. 10.

Domini was one of over 60 investors who, in 2023, wrote a joint letter urging Nike to pay $2.2 million in alleged unpaid wages to more than 4,000 garment workers in Cambodia and Thailand.

Labor rights groups claim the workers lost wages following COVID-19-related factory shutdowns, which Nike denies. Norway's wealth fund owns 0.92% of Nike's shares, valued at around $1.05 billion as of June 30, according to fund data.