Nestlé has denied suggestions that a whistleblowing system it was
supposed to set up five years ago to root out examples of unethical
baby milk formula marketing does not actually exist.
The UK pressure group Baby Milk Action claimed it could find no
evidence of any action from the ombudsman system, which Nestle
announced it would set up in 2002 (EP4, issue 1), and questioned whether it was in fact operating. But Nestlé told EP it had honoured its promise and insisted the system was ‘completely operational’.
Thien Luong Van My, Nestlé’s public affairs manager, who is responsible
for the company’s compliance with the World Health Organization code on
baby milk formula marketing, said: ‘This whistleblowing mechanism has a
strong dissuasive effect on temptations among staff members to err on
the unsafe side of interpretation of the relevant Nestlé instructions.’
She added: ‘In a South Asian country a manager has recently been
dismissed after his staff reported on irregularities that he
instigated. In another case, in a Middle-East country, an infant
nutrition manager was suspected of having used equivocal language in
training sessions that could have been misconstrued by his medical
delegates as linking their job performances to sales of infant formula.
That manager was removed from supervisory functions.’
Mike Brady, campaigns and networking co-ordinator at Baby Milk Action,
said transparency remained a concern. Nestlé publishes extensive
information online, including a list of allegations against the company
regarding the WHO code.
