Brussels, 27 November 2018 (ITUC OnLine): The International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) has announced the shortlist for the 2018 Worst Boss in the World ahead of the opening of the 4th ITUC World Congress in Copenhagen.
"While there are many CEOs with bad track records, ten men whose companies have a global footprint have been chosen for the 2018 poll due to their abuses of workers' rights and their activities which undermine the interests of working people," said Sharan Burrow, ITUC General Secretary.
The vote for the world's worst boss was first run in 2014 during the ITUC World Congress in Berlin and was won by Amazon's Jeff Bezos.
The 2018 shortlist includes:
· Jeff Bezos, CEO Amazon.com
· Vincent Bolloré, Chairman and CEO Bolloré
· Ivan Glasenberg, CEO Glencore
· Dara Khosrowshahi, CEO Uber
· Lee Kun-hee, Chairman Samsung Group
· Doug McMillon, President and CEO Walmart Inc.
· Michael O'Leary, CEO Ryanair
· Will Shu, Co-Founder and CEO Deliveroo
· Arne Sorenson, President and CEO Marriott International
· Harvey Weinstein, former CEO Weinstein Company and founder Miramax
The all-male shortlist includes six Americans, a South Korean, a dual nationality Australian-South African, and French and Irish citizens. The richest CEO is Jeff Bezos with an estimated net worth of US$156 billion. Four of the bosses – Amazon's Jeff Bezos, Glencore's Ivan Glasenberg, Samsung's Lee Kun-hee and Walmart's Doug McMillon – were in the 2014 shortlist.
"Four years ago bankers represented some of the worst abuses of corporate power; now it's platform businesses with the likes of Amazon, Uber and Deliveroo that dominate the worst boss shortlist.
Digitalisation will gather more speed, but the choices about regulation to protect workers' rights and the public interest are in the hands of democratically elected governments. Workers and their unions will not accept the 'Uberisation' of work where employers take no responsibility for employees and fail to pay tax or contribute to social protection," said Sharan Burrow.
"The shortlist of shame represents some of the worst abuses of corporate power – anti-union tactics, paying below the minimum wage, tax avoidance, corruption, worker exploitation, human rights violations and environmental destruction. We will fight as a global union movement to change the rules to protect workers' rights and end corporate greed," said Burrow.
The public can vote for the worst boss until 18:00 Central European Time, 6 December 2018. https://congress2018.ituc-csi.org/worst-boss
The winner will be announced during the ITUC World Congress in Copenhagen.
The 4th ITUC World Congress takes place from 2 - 7 December in Copenhagen. More than 1,200 trade unionists from 250 national trade union centres and 132 countries will debate trade union priorities for the next four years.