On 15 March 2018, the Council on Ethics recommended to exclude the company Luthai Textile Co Ltd from the Government Pension Fund due to an unacceptable risk of the company being responsible for systematic human rights violations.
Luthai owns textiles and garment manufacturing facilities in a number of countries. The recommendation is based on investigations into working conditions which uncovered systematic norm violation at the company’s factories in Cambodia and Myanmar, including the use of young people below the age of 18 under the same terms as adults, numerous occupational health and safety hazards and restrictions on freedom of association. The Council on Ethics gives weight to the fact that, previously, Luthai seems only to a limited extent to have implemented measures resulting in lasting improvements in working conditions. Combined with the fact that Luthai is unwilling to provide insights into how it runs its business operations, this leads the Council to conclude that there is an unacceptable risk of Luthai being responsible for systematic human rights violations in the future, too.
On 10 July 2018, Norges Bank published its decision to follow the Council on Ethics’ recommendation.