Act ethically
The company has an opportunity to enhance transparency by describing its process for identifying bribery and corruption risks and impacts in specific locations or activities within its own operations. However, there’s some uncertainty about whether the mechanism for stakeholders to report bribery and corruption concerns is accessible to all stakeholders, highlighting a need for clarification.
Furthermore, the company could strengthen its commitment to transparency by formalizing a policy that outlines its approach to lobbying and political engagement. While the company’s publicly available policy statement specifies that it allows political contributions only in accordance with the provisions of the Companies Act 2013, there’s an opportunity to provide additional information on whether these contributions are made under exceptional circumstances and the criteria guiding such decisions.
To further reinforce ethical lobbying practices and transparency, the company could consider disclosing its lobbying expenditures and asserting that it requires third-party lobbyists to adhere to its lobbying and political engagement policy, thereby aligning external partners with its values and standards.
Provide and promote decent work
The company can improve transparency by disclosing its methods for monitoring the health and safety performance of its suppliers. Additionally, it could consider setting a time-bound target for achieving payment of a living wage to all its workers or share that it has already achieved this goal. To provide further insight into its ethical practices, the company has the opportunity to clarify how it determines a living wage for the regions where it operates and add a requirement for its suppliers to pay a living wage, while disclosing the support it provides for this payment.
In the realm of gender equality and women’s empowerment, the company has room to make a public commitment and establish time-bound targets to underscore its dedication. Furthermore, it can disclose that it ensures at least 30% representation of women on its highest governing body. To demonstrate its commitment to gender pay equity, the company should also disclose the ratio of basic salary and remuneration between women and men within its total direct operations workforce across various employee categories, with a breakdown by significant locations of operation.
Respect human rights
The company’s current human rights policy statement could be more assertive to make it a formal commitment. It also has an opportunity to expand the scope of its commitment to encompass all ILO fundamental rights at work. Additionally, introducing a policy that expects suppliers to adhere to these human rights standards would strengthen its ethical practices.
To enhance transparency, the company could describe its process for identifying human rights risks and impacts within its operations and supply chain, focusing on specific locations or activities. Sharing the results of its human rights risk assessment and disclosing a global system to address significant human rights concerns would further underscore its commitment to ethical practices.
