eBay Completes"Living Our Values" Assessment - Will Results Calm Investors' Labor Relations Concerns?
eBay has completed their "Living Our Values" assessment, with Davis Wright Tremaine LLP finding the company operates in line with their published Human Rights Policy and other values statements - will it be enough to assuage investor concerns about labor relations?
The "investor recommended" assessment was undertaken in July as regulatory scrutiny on the company has been heating up with ongoing labor issues with unionized workers eBay-owned TCGPlayer and enhanced compliance monitoring as part of a deferred prosecution deal made with the Department of Justice in the eBay cyberstalking case.
Liz Morton
Davis Wright Tremaine LLP was tasked with taking a close look at [eBay's] workplace practices, policies, culture, and hearing directly from employees and external stakeholders" with a specific focus on the Human Rights Policy Statement, including the United Nations Principles on Business and Human Rights and the ILO Declaration of Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work.
Curiously, the assessment did not cover topics related to employees' working conditions, pay or benefits.
Those topics would be critical to measuring whether eBay is living up to their Human Rights Policies as a whole and specifically in regard to unionized workers at TCGPlayer who have filed multiple complaints with the National Labor Relations Board alleging the company has escalated union-busting activities targeting women, disabled and pro-union workers with illegal surveillance and changes to family leave benefits as well as pregnancy discrimination and refusal to bargain in good faith in contract negotiations.
Liz Morton
In announcing the results of the assessment, eBay says the independent assessor "interviewed and solicited written feedback from more than 35 people, including employees, management, and an external expert" but did not specify how many TCGUnion-CWA members or representatives were included in that process.
At eBay, we remain committed to living by our values, and fostering an inclusive workplace where everyone feels valued, respected and empowered. This commitment drives us to regularly reflect on and assess our practices, policies and culture to ensure we’re staying true to our mission to connect people and build communities to create economic opportunity for all.
Several months ago, in response to feedback from some investors, we began an independent third-party assessment of our values, including how we live our Human Rights Policy Statement. That assessment has been completed, and we’d like to share an update.
eBay provided three brief bullet point highlights of the assessment:
- Stakeholder Engagement: The assessor interviewed and solicited written feedback from more than 35 people, including employees, management, and an external expert, to gather a range of perspectives on our workplace culture and policies.
- Document Review: The assessor reviewed our workplace policies, practices, surveys, training processes and other materials to evaluate our alignment with human rights standards and collective bargaining practices.
- Data Collection: Through interviews with key stakeholders, and a thorough review of our policies and processes, the assessor collected feedback to identify our strengths and opportunities for improvement.
They also provided three brief bullet points about the assessment's findings.
We are pleased to share that the assessor recognized our commitment to our Human Rights Policy Statement.
Specifically, the assessment concluded that:
- eBay is committed to encouraging employees to express their opinions and concerns;
- eBay has not interfered with employees’ free choice in deciding whether to join a union; and
- When bargaining with the union, eBay has acted consistently with its commitment to bargain in good faith.
It's fair to say based on multiple still open and actively under investigation NLRB cases and a recent rally for better wages and a fair contract that TCGUnion-CWA would probably not be inclined to agree with that assessment - especially as contract negotiations have dragged on for over a year.
Liz Morton
But again, since the parameters of the assessment explicitly excluded any topics related to working conditions or pay and benefits from the get go, these results are an unsurprising forgone conclusion.
While Davis Wright Tremaine LLP is not handling eBay's labor relations legal matters (that distinction goes to notorious anti-union law firm Littler Mendelson), their assessment is also not particularly surprising given their firm's labor expertise is advertised as "minimizing disruption, distraction and exposure" for their corporate clients who are facing unfair labor practice charges.
However, it's not just unionized authentication workers at TCGPlayer that eBay has to worry about - Don Bivens PLLC is also investigating the company for potential employee rights violations related to underperformance of assets tied to 401(K) benefits that crosses over into eBay's wider white collar salaried tech employee base as well.
Liz Morton
Bivens specializes in Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) litigation, with a focus on cases involving breaches of fiduciary duty, challenging the mismanagement of 401(k) plans, exposing conflicts of interest, and tackling complex issues like excessive fees and imprudent investments.
But here again, because this assessment was designed to exclude any topics related to pay or benefits, none of those potential 401(k) issues would have been considered - proving once again the old adage about lies, damn lies and statistics and that the outcome of any survey or study can be heavily influenced by simply asking (or excluding) the right questions.
As for recommendations and next steps, again no surprise that eBay provided three brief bullet points here too.
As requested, the assessor also identified areas where we had opportunity to better align our practices with our Human Rights Policy Statement and uphold our commitment to fair, inclusive processes.
We have taken those recommendations and have already begun to put the following enhancements in place:
- Supplementing the Human Rights Policy Statement with additional guidance on how it is implemented and enforced, formalizing the connection between our policies and existing practices;
- Identifying and implementing strategies to raise awareness around the Human Rights Policy Statement; and
- Establishing a cross-functional team with identified process owners to periodically review the Human Rights Policy Statement and monitor our adherence.
It would have been nice if eBay had given details about who this cross-functional team will be reporting to - my guess is ultimately it may all roll up to Chief Ethics Officer Aaron Johnson.
That could raise additional ethical questions since in his previous role at the company, Johnson was the main recipient of the infamous "Whatever. It. Takes" email from ex-Chief Communications Officer Steve Wymer that was a catalyst which led to eBay security personnel harassing and stalking journalists Ina and David Steiner of EcommerceBytes in an attempt to influence their reporting and out an anonymous source who went by the Twitter handle unsuckEBAY.
Given the criminal events that occurred following this email, it would appear that neither Johnson nor then Chief Legal Officer Marie Oh Huber took action in their respective positions to make sure eBay's head of security, Jim Baugh, handled executive "frustration" within established legal bounds or reported this troubling and highly inappropriate communication from Wymer through any of the internal compliance or ethics channels which existed at that time - or, if they did, those channels clearly failed.
How are current employees supposed to feel knowing this is the person who may ultimately handle any reports or concerns about eBay's current or future adherence to their Human Rights Policy or Business Code of Ethics?
At the end of the day this "Living Our Values" assessment appears to have accomplished exactly what eBay carefully curated it to do - provide some positive "independent" results to package into a press release for mass consumption.
But the real work of living their values, maintaining employee morale and goodwill, and honoring their commitment to bargain fairly with union members lies largely in those places purposely left out - working conditions, pay and benefits.
If I were an investor, I'd be very interested in what an assessment of those topics would reveal and would "recommend" a deeper look that includes a wider variety of respondents and an assessor that might have a more balanced perspective on labor disputes.
