Human rights
We strive to identify, prevent and manage negative potential and actual human rights impacts in our operations, supply chain and with respect to our major business relationships.
In doing so, we can contribute to global respect for human rights and support our ambition to have a scalable, systemic net positive impact on society, as well as meeting growing regulatory demand for human rights due diligence. Our approach is guided by the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and the relevant Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) frameworks.
Our commitment
SIG is a signatory to the United Nations Global Compact. We are committed to adhering to the standards encompassed by the International Bill of Human Rights, the International Labour Organization’s (ILO) core labour standards and the Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI) Base Code.
We are working to apply a systematic implementation process – informed by a gap analysis of existing measures, structures and responsibilities – to help us identify and address our salient human rights issues in our own operations and supply chain, as part of strengthening our due diligence framework.
Our commitment to promoting fair labour practices and upholding labour rights for our employees, which is embedded in our Human Rights, Labour and Community Engagement Policy, includes: providing fair pay and decent working conditions to enable adequate living standards; recognising the right to freedom of association and collective bargaining; and preventing discrimination, child labour and modern slavery (including human trafficking, forced and compulsory labour, bonded labour and slavery). We also ensure working conditions and terms of employment for employees not covered by collective bargaining agreements are in line with our standards and local requirements.
Two-yearly SEDEX Members Ethical Trade Audits (SMETA) at our production sites, which include an assessment of potential human rights risks and impacts as part of the labour pillar, help us check that we are living up to our commitments in our own operations. If the audit findings identify any issues, corrective action plans help us to remediate these and establish mechanisms to prevent similar issues in the future.
We extend requirements and expectations on human and labour rights to suppliers through our Supplier Code of Conduct to protect supply chain workers. Suppliers are expected to communicate and apply the principles throughout their supply chain. Criteria for our own audits of high-risk suppliers, as well as third-party assessments such as SMETA audits requested from significant suppliers, include human and labour rights. FSC™ certification, required for all the liquid packaging board we purchase, also includes criteria on protection of human and indigenous rights in communities. See Responsible culture: our supply chain for more on working with responsible suppliers.
Annual certification on the SIG Code of Conduct, which includes our requirements on human rights, is mandatory for all employees. Any grievances can be reported through our Integrity & Compliance Hotline. We investigate all reported issues, take appropriate action and seek to find solutions together with the affected person.
Our targets
2025 target |
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Advance our human rights risk identification and assessment processes in our own operations and supply chain to define salient human rights issues |
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Conduct assessments of potential human rights risks and impacts in 50% of our own plants every two years |
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Maintain SEDEX Members Ethical Trade Audit (SMETA) at all production sites |
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Ensure 100% of significant1 suppliers accept our Supplier Code of Conduct or Business Ethics Code for Suppliers or have an equivalent code in place2 (see Supply chain) |
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Audit 50% of high-risk significant suppliers each year (see Supply chain) |
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Provide regular training (at least every two years) on ethical supplier standards and sustainable sourcing to all employees who interact frequently with suppliers (see Supply chain) |
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Our progress
We continued to review and strengthen our human rights due diligence this year by: assessing our operations and supply chain against upcoming regulatory requirements; using a methodology developed by AIM-PROGRESS to help us identify opportunities to better integrate human rights due diligence in our responsible sourcing programme; and launching a new Supplier Code of Conduct that more explicitly addresses our requirements on this than the previous SIG Business Ethics Code for Suppliers. We also appointed an executive sponsor for human rights at Group Executive Board level to help drive progress in this area.
Thailand plant recognised for excellent labour practices
Our aseptic carton production plant in Rayong, Thailand, received the 2022 Excellent Practices Establishment on Labour Relations and Welfare National Level as the 2nd Year of Achievement award from the Thai Ministry of Labour.
The award is based on the implementation of a labour management system according to international standards that meet 148 specified requirements in four categories, including cooperation with the trade union. It aims to encourage employers and employees to work together to develop a labour relations and welfare management system that provides employees with good working conditions and a good quality of life that provides stability and enables them to feel happy at work.
Of the 11,500 companies in Rayong Province, SIG is one of just 99 companies to receive the award. This latest recognition follows similar Ministry of Labour awards for the Rayong plant at national level in 2021 and provincial level in 2020.
Performance in 2022
Strengthening human rights due diligence
- In 2022, we appointed our Chief People and Culture Officer, Suzanne Verzijden, who is a member of our Group Executive Board, as executive sponsor for human rights to help drive our progress in continually improving our human rights due diligence.
- We completed an assessment of our operations (including the businesses we acquired this year), and the supply chain for our aseptic carton business, to identify any changes required to our human rights due diligence policies and processes to ensure compliance with forthcoming regulatory requirements on this topic. Based on this assessment, we have developed a roadmap to implement the required changes in our operations and supply chain over the next two years.
- We launched a new Supplier Code of Conduct in 2022 that reinforces our human rights due diligence requirements and expectations, and addresses these more explicitly than the previous SIG Business Ethics Code for Suppliers. This follows updates to the SIG Code of Conduct and our Human Rights, Labour and Community Engagement Policy last year to more explicitly address human rights due diligence and grievance processes in relation to our operations.
- Through our membership of AIM-PROGRESS – a forum of leading fast moving consumer goods manufacturers and common suppliers to promote responsible sourcing practices and sustainable supply chains – we used its established methodology to assess the maturity of our responsible sourcing programme and identify areas to enhance our human rights due diligence processes related to our supply chain.
Raising awareness and acting on concerns
- 99%1 of SIG Group employees completed their annual certification on the SIG Code of Conduct, including virtually everyone who joined the business through acquisitions this year. We also provided in-depth training for employees in high-risk roles on topics such as anti-harassment.
- We advertised our Integrity & Compliance Hotline through various channels, including the SIG Code of Conduct – as well as including information in our Supplier Code of Conduct on how to raise a concern – to encourage employees and suppliers to speak up if they have any concerns. We investigated all reports and took disciplinary action, including reprimands and dismissals, where appropriate. No incidents of discrimination were substantiated in 2022.
Upholding labour rights in our operations
- All our aseptic carton production sites, our office site in Mexico and several of our legal entities in Germany and Switzerland completed SEDEX SMETA audits – which include an assessment of potential human rights risks and impacts as part of the labour pillar – in 2021. The next scheduled two-yearly audits in 2023 will also include the production plants we acquired this year.
- Our production plant in Rayong (Thailand) received the 2022 Excellent Practices Establishment on Labour Relations and Welfare National Level as the 2nd Year of Achievement award from the Thai Ministry of Labour (see case study above).
- Globally, around 46%2 of employees in our carton business were covered by collective bargaining agreements in 2022, and we continued to engage on pay, benefits and other locally relevant topics in formal consultations with employee representatives.
See Responsible culture: our people for more on employee topics such as diversity, equity and inclusion, and see Responsible culture: health, safety and wellbeing for more on employee health, safety and wellbeing.
Extending requirements to our supply chain
See Responsible culture: our supply chain for more on upholding labour and human rights in our supply chain as part of our commitment to source from responsible suppliers.
1 Includes employees joining SIG from Scholle IPN and Evergreen Asia, both acquired in 2022.
2 Includes employees joining SIG in 2022 through the acquisition of Evergreen Asia. Excludes employees joining SIG in 2022 through the acquisition of Scholle IPN.