The Business Council of Australia has expressed serious concerns about the tactics employed by a reputation rating service seeking to co-opt the involvement of major businesses in its commercial surveys.

The BCA said it had been advised by a number of its members of what both the BCA and these members consider to be highly inappropriate tactics employed by the reputation rating service RepuTex.

In particular, BCA Member companies have objected to the threat of being ‘named and shamed’ publicly if they decline to participate in RepuTex’s commercial surveys.

In recent media reports, Caltex and Telstra have been accused by RepuTex of not caring about community values because they have opted not to participate in the survey.

“The BCA supports improving corporate social responsibility, business governance and ethics, and one way of improving transparency and accountability in these areas is through reputation surveys,” Ms Katie Lahey, BCA Chief Executive, said.

“Yet we reject the claim that failing to support one particular reputation rating service equates to a rejection of corporate social responsibility.

“This service is one of a number of commercially-based organisations, selling reputation services into the marketplace.

“Commercial companies offering reputation services must be, and must be seen to lead by example in their behaviour. To criticise a company simply because it chooses not to participate in a survey hardly upholds the values publicly promoted by RepuTex.

“On the basis of these tactics, we would not be surprised if many of our Members question the value of participating in this exercise.”