SK Telecom

SK Telecom provides discounts on its services for people with disabilities, low-income households and retirees, to contribute to affordable and universal access to digital technologies. The company also has an initiative aimed at women facing career interruptions. The company offers reemployment courses so that the women can re-train as ICT instructors. SK Telecom also supports initiatives focused on accessibility for users with disabilities and reports the number of its employees with disabilities. Furthermore, it discloses how the economic value it generates is distributed among stakeholders.

SK Telecom runs various digital skills programmes, such as coding classes for children and digital education for the elderly, to bridge the digital skills gap for vulnerable populations. The company participates in an initiative with the Korean Ministry of Education to donate personal computers and provide special tariffs for high-speed internet to students from low-income families. SK Telecom also supports women in developing coding skills for a career in the tech industry.

SK Telecom has a Chief Information Security Officer overseeing cybersecurity. The company reports the number of data breaches it experiences and discloses the number of requests for data that it receives from law enforcement agencies. It also commits to child online protection, prioritising it as a human rights issue.

The company commits to open innovation by participating in international standards organisations, having several open source projects as well as collaborating with universities and ministries on projects advancing 5G and artificial intelligence (AI) technology. It also supports the tech innovation ecosystem by investing in early-stage companies, and supporting start-ups through accelerators across the Republic of Korea, including start-ups creating assistive technology devices for people with disabilities. Furthermore, the company has started to report the total number of women it employs in technical roles.

SK Telecom can report on the impact its programmes have on participants. Additionally, it can disclose how it is creating an inclusive workplace for its employees with disabilities.

The company has an opportunity to develop initiatives that advance intermediate and technical digital skills. It can also report the participation metrics for its existing programmes for skills development.

SK Telecom can better demonstrate how it manages cybersecurity by explaining the line of responsibility and how it monitors and responds to security incidents. Additionally, the company should report on the measures it takes to protect children online.

The company can disclose the ethical principles it follows for its research and development (R&D) activities, including AI.

SK Telecom commits to respecting human rights and the ILO core labour rights. It also has a publicly available policy statement that expects its business relationships to commit to respecting the ILO core labour rights. Furthermore, SK Telecom identifies, assesses and takes action to address the salient human rights issues in its own operations and in its business relationships. The company also identifies and engages with stakeholders whose human rights are or could be impacted by its operations, but it does not disclose specific examples of these engagements. Additionally, SK Telecom has a grievance mechanism accessible to both workers and external stakeholders to raise human rights concerns and complaints.

SK Telecom publicly commits to respecting the health and safety of workers, but it does not disclose quantitative health and safety information, such as the rate of high-consequence work-related injuries. The company is not explicit in stating that it does not require workers to work more than the regular and overtime hours. SK Telecom also provides no relevant evidence in relation to paying its workers a living wage. However, it does disclose information on the collective bargaining agreements covering its workforce. In relation to workforce diversity, the company provides a breakdown of employees in different employee categories by gender. However, it does not disclose information against any other indicators of diversity per employee category, such as age group. Additionally, the company does not have a public commitment to gender equality and women’s empowerment.

SK Telecom takes steps to identify and address bribery and corruption risks and impacts, but it does not disclose a policy statement prohibiting bribery and corruption. Further, the company has a global tax strategy, but it does not disclose income tax payments for its individual tax jurisdictions. SK Telecom does have a publicly available policy statement on its approach to lobbying and political engagement, wherein it specifies that it does not make political contributions, in line with the Republic of Koreas’ Political Fund Act.

The below datasheet disaggregates scores within the three core social measurement areas and by specific indicators.