PCCW

PCCW provides affordable access to digital technologies by offering free handsets with mobile data services to nursing homes for the elderly and care homes for people with disabilities. The company also commits to integrating accessible design principles in its products and reports the number of people with disabilities it employs. Further, the company discloses its community investments and provides a breakdown of its employment figures by location.

The company supports intermediate digital skills development through its partnership with Lingnan University in Hong Kong.

PCCW provides a service through which parents can control the content that their children see while using company products. The company also discloses its data breaches and the number of accounts that are affected.

PCCW contributes to the tech start-up ecosystem by supporting innovation labs and business hubs focusing on social entrepreneurship. The company also provides digital expertise to projects focusing on smart and green building development.

Although PCCW demonstrates how it applies accessibility features in its products, it can further explain how it solicits feedback from people with disabilities and incorporates this into its product design process. The company can also disclose how it accommodates the needs of people with disabilities in the workplace. Additionally, it can report the amount of financial resources it contributes to support its programmes for increasing digital access. The company also has an opportunity to address the gender digital divide through a dedicated programme for women and girls. PCCW should disclose how it distributes the economic value it generates among its stakeholders and report the taxes it pays in its significant markets.

Going beyond its efforts to promote technical digital skills and school connectivity during the COVID-19 pandemic, the company can introduce long-term programmes in these areas. It can also provide more information on the programmes, such as the amount of resources it has contributed and the impacts achieved.

PCCW has an information security management certificate; however, it can make this publicly available. The company should make a high-level commitment to cybersecurity and disclose how it manages information security, including its approach to incident response and number of data breaches. Additionally, it could report the government requests it receives for personal information and integrate a commitment to child online safety into the group’s operating policies.

PCCW has an opportunity to expand its support for open, sustainable, inclusive and ethical innovation. It can support the work of international standards organisations. It can also partner with universities and non-profit organisations on technology or sustainability-related research. Further, the company can disclose the number of women it employs in its research and development (R&D) department and how it applies ethics in its R&D activities.

PCCW commits to respecting human rights but does not provide a public policy statement committing to respect all the ILO core labour rights, including the rights to collective bargaining and freedom of association. The company included human rights issues in its materiality assessment, but it does not disclose a process to identify, assess and act on salient human rights risks in its own operations and in its business relationships. Moreover, the company describes the various stakeholders it engages with in general, but it does not specify whether it engages with stakeholders whose human rights have been or may be affected by its activities. PCCW has a grievance mechanism accessible to all stakeholders to raise human rights concerns and complaints.

PCCW publicly commits to respecting worker health and safety, and it places health and safety requirements on its business relationships and monitors their performance. The company does not disclose a policy commitment stating that it does not require workers to work more than the regular and overtime hours. Furthermore, PCCW does not disclose what proportion of its global workforce is covered by collective bargaining agreements, and it does not provide information in relation to paying its workers a living wage. The company provides a breakdown of employees in different employee categories by gender, but it has an opportunity to disclose employee figures for other indicators of diversity per employee category. It can also make a public commitment towards gender equality and women’s empowerment.

PCCW has a policy prohibiting bribery and corruption and includes anti-bribery and anti-corruption clauses in its business relationship contracts. The company has a global tax strategy and discloses income tax payments in two categories – Hong Kong and overseas. However, it does not disclose its income tax payments for individual tax jurisdictions. Moreover, PCCW does not disclose its approach to lobbying and political engagement. Specifically, the company has no public statement indicating that it does not make political contributions, and it does not disclose its lobbying expenditures.