MTS

MTS reports the number of its employees with disabilities and discloses how it audits the accessibility of its workplaces. The company also discloses its community investments as well as its taxes paid and employees in its markets of operation.

The company supports digital literacy through its Tablet from Scratch initiative as well as its #TeachYourCloseOnes programme that it implements through its subsidiary MTS Belarus, where children are encouraged to teach the elderly digital skills. Additionally, MTS launched the NETARIF Junior subscription in 2021, which provides children with unlimited calls, protection from unwanted calls and free access to school textbooks.

The company monitors cybersecurity through a security operations centre. Its information security management system complies with international standards. The company also demonstrates initiatives for child online safety.

MTS partners with universities on projects relating to artificial intelligence (AI), the internet of things (IoT), big data and digital health. The company supports the tech innovation ecosystem through a venture capital fund and an accelerator programme for start-ups, which also has a track for social start-ups. Additionally, the company uses the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a framework for setting its priorities.

MTS can support initiatives for digital inclusion for women and girls. The company has an opportunity to integrate more accessibility features into its products for people with disabilities. MTS used to report taxes paid by its subsidiaries and could resume this practice.

MTS can disclose additional information about its digital skills initiatives. The company also has an opportunity to resume its past initiatives for intermediate and technical digital skills development.

The company used to report the number of data breaches it experienced but stopped doing so in 2019. It could resume this practice and also disclose more information about senior-level oversight of cybersecurity. Additionally, the company could introduce a group data privacy policy and make a high-level commitment to child online safety.

MTS has an opportunity to disclose how it contributes to diverse, inclusive and ethical research. Specifically, it should report the number of women it employs in tech roles and how it applies ethical considerations in its research and development (R&D), particularly AI.

MTS commits to respecting human rights and has a publicly available policy statement that expects its business relationships to commit to respecting the ILO core labour rights. However, the company does not commit to respecting all the labour fundamentals outlined in the ILO core labour rights in its own operations. Although the company states that it regularly reviews relevant human rights risks, it does not disclose its process to identify, assess and act of salient human rights risks in its operations and business relationships. MTS does, however, have a grievance mechanism accessible to both workers and external stakeholders to raise human rights concerns and complaints.

MTS publicly commits to respecting worker health and safety, and it places health and safety expectations on its business relationships and monitors their performance. The company also discloses the proportion of its total direct operations workforce covered by collective bargaining agreements. However, it provides no relevant evidence in relation to paying its workers a living wage. Furthermore, it does not specify that it does not require workers to work more than the regular and overtime hours. MTS provides a breakdown of employees in different employee categories by three indicators of diversity, including age and gender, but has an opportunity to disclose information against more indicators of diversity, such as race/ethnicity. Furthermore, MTS has an opportunity to make a public commitment to promote gender equality and women’s empowerment.

MTS has a policy prohibiting bribery and corruption and includes anti-bribery and anti-corruption clauses in its business relationship contracts. Furthermore, the company takes steps to identify and address bribery and corruption and has a grievance mechanism for stakeholders to raise concerns and complaints. While the company discloses the country-by-country taxes it has paid in its main operational markets, it does not disclose a global tax strategy or income tax payments for all its tax jurisdictions. Similarly, while the company specifies that it does not make political contributions, it does not disclose its overarching approach to lobbying and political engagement in a public policy statement.