AusNCP

Dear Ms Stevens

Thank you for your submission to the Australian National Contact Point for Responsible Business Conduct (the AusNCP).

We are truly sorry to hear about your health problems.

The AusNCP provides dispute resolution services to resolve complaints against multinational enterprises where it is alleged their

conduct has breached the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises on Responsible Business Conduct.

Your submission relates to allegations that Monsanto (now Bayer) and Dow Chemical breached the OECD Guidelines in the production, promotion and export of Agent Orange

(TCDD), including provisions in the human rights, environment, general policies, consumer and disclosure chapters.

The first stage of an NCP’s formal dealing with a complaint is ‘Initial Assessment’, which considers the complaint against six criteria to determine whether the NCP considers

it is an appropriate matter for the NCP to engage the company and the Guidelines.

In the AusNCP, this assessment is conducted by one of our Independent Examiners and the six criteria and process are outlined

in our complaint handling procedures

(see particularly paragraphs 15 & 30). As part of this assessment, the Examiner will liaise and ask the

parties for further information to determine whether we the complaint should be accepted for further examination and mediation offered; rejected; or transferred to another country’s national contact point.

You may be aware that the OECD Guidelines were first adopted in 1976. Since then, they have been revised several times, including in 2011 when the human rights chapter

and ‘due diligence’ expectations were added.

The OECD Guidelines are not retrospective. That is, companies are expected to act consistently with the version of the OECD Guidelines in place at the time those actions occurred. This issue has arisen in past AusNCP complaints, for example a complaint against Deutsche Bank Australia relating in part to alleged actions by its parent company in Europe during WW2. For the purposes of your own complaint, you may wish to consider the conduct of the enterprises at relevant points of time. The AusNCP website advice on the transition from 2011 OECD Guidelines to the 2023 OECD Guidelines provides further explanation that may be helpful.

OECD Watch (a non-government organisation specialising in the OECD Guidelines which is based in the Netherlands) has useful information about NCP complaints here:

https://www.oecdwatch.org/how-to-file-a-complaint/.

Sections which you may find helpful include ‘Deciding whether to file’ and ‘Preparing and filing the complaint’.

This information is provided so you can better understand the process and remit of the AusNCP’s complaint function, to enable you to make an informed decision. It does

not seek to prevent you from proceeding with a complaint if you wish to do that.

If you do wish to proceed, then this complaint will be allocated to an AusNCP Independent Examiner to undertake an Initial Assessment.

Kind regards,