Protecting and respecting human dignity is central to our everyday business operations. Moreover, as a global company working in a range of developing countries, we believe we have an important contribution to make through the example we set by our behaviours.
Our human rights policy is aligned to the UN Guiding Principles on business and human rights and includes strict prohibition of child or forced labour - either directly or through contract labour. Additionally, our Code of Business Conduct and Ethics (Code) commits us to comply with all relevant national laws and regulations, underpinning our approach to protecting the fundamental rights of all our direct and indirect employees.
Human Rights Management
Human rights training is an integral part of our Sustainable Development Framework implementation, with periodic training in Code of Business Conduct and Ethics that includes the Human Rights aspects is provided to our employees and contract workforce. These range from our on-site security guards – who are required to work in compliance with International Finance Corporation (IFC) and International Council on Mining and Metals guidelines – to our transport workforce, where we have previously identified some risks of child labour.
We also undertake periodic reviews and risk assessments in our all our group companies to identify potential human rights, child and forced labour-related risks within our boundary, communities and supply chain.
Human rights-related risks may occur in our supply chain. Therefore, although all our significant suppliers have adequate systems to safeguard the human rights of their workforce, we continue to engage these businesses diligently.
To this end all our new suppliers and contractors are provided with an induction to our Code of Business Conduct and Ethics, sustainability policies, standards and systems. Further now all our new suppliers and contractors undergo sustainability screening on human rights and child labour, environment and labour aspects etc. Inspections and audits of all key suppliers and contractors are undertaken and any issues identified are recorded and communicated to the contractor.
A supplier relationship management e-learning module ensures transparency and provides a communication mechanism for all registered suppliers to voice their concerns.
Forced and Child labour
Our Code of Conduct expressly prohibits the use of forced and child labour. This is upheld in all our dealings with contractors and vendors, with guidance provided to sites on working with contractors and suppliers in order to eliminate any breach.
Indigenous Peoples/Vulnerable Tribal Groups
We are committed to respecting the rights of vulnerable and indigenous people. In support of this commitment we follow a technical standard and guidance note on Indigenous Peoples/Vulnerable Tribal Groups which meets international standards.
The core aim of the standard is to enable our project teams to engage, negotiate and partner with these vulnerable groups in a manner that avoids negative impacts and risks for all stakeholders, especially the indigenous peoples and vulnerable tribes. It also outlines our desire to create opportunities for positive economic and social development, within the context of the unique requirements of these groups.