Our commitment to human rights
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights calls upon "every individual and every organ of society" to promote respect for human rights.
The foundation of international human rights law is the United Nations' 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). The UDHR is not legally binding but is an aspirational set of standards and principles. Securing and delivering human rights is ultimately the responsibility of government, but businesses can play their part too by upholding and promoting human rights within their spheres of influence.
We seek to do this in three ways: in our operations by upholding our values and standards, in our relationships with our suppliers, and by working through external initiatives, such as the United Nations Global Compact.
Our Code of Business Principles
Our Code of Business Principles sets out our commitment to human rights. It confirms that "We conduct our operations with honesty, integrity and openness, and with respect for the human rights and interests of our employees".
The section of our Code dealing with employees takes into account the core International Labour Organisation labour standards: it clearly states our opposition to forced and child labour and sets out our respect for employees' right to freedom of association.
In 2007 we surveyed our 45 largest businesses which showed that our youngest employee, aged 15, is in Germany, compliant with local legislation. In all these countries, wages paid by Unilever is at least equal to, and in most cases exceed, the minimum wage established by the relevant national authority. For legal reasons, it is not always possible to collect information about the number of employees who are members of trade unions, however, in the countries where this information is available it reveals 37.1% of our eligible employees are members of trade unions.
Reviewing our approach
In 2007, we reviewed our approach to human rights. The aim of the review was to ensure that Unilever continues to live up to its standards as set out in our Code of Business Principles and that effective communications and compliance mechanisms are in place.
The review concluded that further training would be beneficial to explain the different elements of human rights. Employees would also benefit from clearer definitions of these elements, such as freedom of association, collective bargaining, forced/bonded labour and child labour.
Compliance monitoring of our human rights obligations is delivered via our positive assurance process. This will be complemented by a system of continuous improvement (akin to the systems we use for safety, health and environment), based primarily on self-assessment at site level and supported by periodic external audits. (The self-assessment methodology is designed to be consistent with that used to monitor our suppliers’ compliance with our Business Partner Code.) We will pilot test this enhancement to our processes in 2008.
Human rights & our business partners
Our human rights commitment is also reflected in the way we work with our business partners and suppliers. Our Business Partner Code makes clear the standards to which we expect our business partners to adhere. It contains 10 principles covering business integrity and responsibilities relating to employees, consumers and the environment. Four of its principles address human rights:
there shall be respect for human rights, and no employee shall suffer harassment, physical or mental punishment, or other form of abuse
there shall be no use of forced or compulsory labour, and employees shall be free to leave employment after reasonable notice
there shall be no use of child labour, and specifically there will be compliance with relevant ILO standards
there shall be respect for the right of employees to freedom of association.
Living out our commitments
These commitments are of no practical use unless they are part of an active process of compliance, monitoring and reporting. The board of Unilever is responsible for this process and day-to-day responsibility lies with senior management around the world. As part of our worldwide positive assurance process, each year our company chairmen give written assurance that their business is in compliance with our Code of Business Principles.
Breaches of the Code are reported to the Group Secretary of Unilever. We expect and encourage employees to bring to our attention any breach of the Code. All our employees can access our 'ethics hotline' – a 24-hour toll-free number through which they can raise any concerns in complete confidence and, if they so wish, on an anonymous basis. In 2007, 54 employees were dismissed as a result of breaches of the Code. None of these breaches were related to labour rights.
We also use a positive assurance process with our suppliers. We have communicated our Business Partner Code to all our current suppliers of ‘production items’ (ie the raw materials and packaging we use to make our products) to gain their assurance that they adhere to its principles. We are now following up with those suppliers we have prioritised for more detailed assessment and a programme of audits.
In 2007, together with some of our peer companies, we established a global Programme for Responsible Sourcing (PROGRESS). As part of this, we have agreed on a common approach to evaluate the social and environmental performance of suppliers across specific groups of goods and services. We believe this collaborative approach will help reduce duplicated effort for PROGRESS members and suppliers alike, accelerating the process of assessing suppliers and freeing up resources to focus on implementing improvements within the supply chain.
Promoting human rights
We seek to work with other companies, labour and civil society organisations on human rights issues. For example, the United Nations Global Compact principles set out commitments for business in relation to human rights and labour standards. As a founding signatory to the Compact, we are committed to upholding these principles.
Safeguarding human rights & labour standards
Since November 2006, three separate complaints have been brought to our attention by the International Union of Food Workers (IUF), regarding site closure, freedom of association and collective bargaining at our factories in India and Pakistan. Under the terms of the OECD's Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises, the IUF has referred its complaints to the OECD's national contact point in the UK for further investigation. We are in dialogue with both organisations to provide information and seek resolution to each of these cases.
See also the Suppliers section below.
