HUMAN RIGHTS, DIVERSITY and INCLUSION 

 

The United Nations (UN) declaration stated that everyone must have the ability to live in “a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment” a universal human rights. UN also urged countries, businesses, and international organizations to step up efforts to make that a reality. The concerns about human rights have risen globally more than before and this is since climate change is already affecting a large portion of the global population. Business operations have significant impacts on the economy, environment, and people. When companies prioritize profit over everything else, they can exploit workers, violate human rights, and harm the environment. However, businesses that prioritize human rights can benefit society by creating fair-paying jobs, providing safe working conditions, and promoting environmental sustainability. It is crucial for businesses to consider the potential negative impacts of their operations and take steps to mitigate them. By prioritizing human rights, businesses can play a crucial role in creating a more just and equitable society.

In response, BJC constantly stays up-to-date with the global trend and the UN’s declaration of human rights, and set out its commitment accordingly. All along, the company has put its effort in minimizing human rights violations and maintaining a safe, healthy, inclusive, and diverse working environment. A wide range of new engagement activities were initiated, aiming to advocate for employee diversity and inclusion throughout the value chain, protecting the rights of individual employees as well as surrounding communities, and promoting community rights, local traditions, and societal equality of the nation. With its human rights commitment through Human Rights Policy and Diversity and Inclusion Management, and Non-Discrimination Policy, as well as the compliance with law and regulations, BJC’s business operations are involved in creating negative impacts regarding human rights.

 

Human Rights, Diversity, and Inclusion Management Approach

Human rights have always been one of BJC's top priorities in doing business. The company believes that focusing on protecting human rights and cultivating positive relationships with all stakeholders can ensure the business's long-term growth, particularly as climate change has raised many human rights issues and concerns in society. BJC correspondingly follows the human rights principles and requirements of national and international renowned human rights standards, for instance, The United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), The United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs), The United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), The International Labor Organization (ILO) and Thailand’s Labor Protection Act. In addition, in 2022, there was no operation nor suppliers in any country or geographic area, at significant risk for incidents of child labor and forced or compulsory labor.

As stated in the corporate-wide human rights policy and incorporated into BJC’s culture and value, the company is committed to treating employees and other stakeholders fairly, regardless of race, gender, nationality, ethnicity, language, religion, or any other status.  In 2022, BJC enhanced its human rights commitment further by initiating a corporate-wide whistle blowing system as stated in steps below.

          1. Identify clues or complaints about breaches or violations of rule and regulation in relation to Human Rights Policy including human trafficking, forced labor and child labor.
          2. Complaints are consolidated and maintained confidentiality.
          3. Establish inspection task force to check facts and propose the result to Investigation Committee.
          4.
             - Consider disciplinary and/or legal penalties if the action is illegal
             - Consider appropriate remediation if the violation affects someone
             - Identify and assign responsible person for preventing a recurrence and improving operations
          5. Report as appropriate

Moreover, BJC continued to prioritize and conduct human rights best practices through new initiatives and activities, promoting its corporate value of 'Happy Workplace,' encouraging all employees to treat others fairly and valuing diversity and inclusion.

 

Policy Commitment: As stated in BJC's Group-wide Human Rights Policy, BJC places a high value on upholding best human rights practices throughout the value chain, and expects all employees and relevant business partners, including executives, suppliers, joint ventures, and other stakeholders, to comply with all applicable human rights laws, regulations, and standards, as well as international standards, in order to ensure that all stakeholders are equally respected and protected.  Moreover, as stated in the company’s Diversity and Inclusion Management, and Non-Discrimination Policy, BJC is committed to recognize the importance of equality and nondiscrimination treatment. BJC always encourages utilizing the diverse thoughts, skills and experiences of employees to create value added, new innovation to drive company’s business forward. BJC has extended the importance of human rights beyond its own operation and set human rights performance as one of the criteria to determine the business relationship. BJC has covered the human rights screening and human rights clauses in the significant investment agreement and contracts.

 

Labor Union and Collective Bargaining Agreement (Freedom of Association)
Employees can communicate their issues, criticisms, and suggestions through a hotline and meetings, which BJC has made available. Furthermore, in order to promote positive relationships with employees, BJC encourages employees to form and join labor unions, fostering employee freedom of association. There are currently 4 labor unions operating across 4 plants, namely 1. Berli Jucker Foods Labor Union 2. Rubia Thailand Labor Union 3. The Glass Union of Thailand and 4. Fasai Labor Union.

• 100 % of BJC's entire workforce participating in the welfare committee
• 3.63 % of employees represented by an independent trade union and covered by collective bargaining agreements.

For employees not covered by collective bargaining agreements, BJC determines their working conditions and terms of employment based on collective bargaining agreements. No country or geographic area with BJC’s operations and suppliers considered at risk, regarding labor union and collective bargaining agreement.

Moreover, according to labor law and regulation, all employees are required to participate in the group and have the right to express their ideas. Controlling, monitoring, and encouraging suppliers and subcontractors to observe human rights norms and guidelines in line with BJC's operation are all part of this.

 

 

Human Right Due Diligence

Regarding the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs), The Human Resource Department conducts Human Rights Due Diligence every three years, and it analytically evaluates potential human rights risks associated with BJC business activities throughout the value chain. BJC’s human rights due diligence process includes;

 

 

BJC conducts human rights due diligence every 3 years and Human Rights Due Diligence will be conducted in 2023, which is the 3-year basis set as a minimum standard for the company’s practice. As for 2022, to address the importance of human rights beyond normal practice, BJC conducted human rights survey online, amongst its employees, aiming to find a gap for improvement in human resource management and employee engagement, as well as to prevent future human rights issues.  The result showed that some employees at the operation level found time management difficult and would like to receive better treatment from their managers.  The result had been analyzed, summarized and reported to the top management.  The Human Resource Department, with a support from Sustainability and Risk Management Department then developed and organized human rights training for managers, as well as human rights course for all employees.  The analyzed survey result and recommendations were integrated into the training and the course accordingly.

 

 

 

 

Monitoring and Communication

 

BJC implements the corporate-wide procedure to monitor human rights risks throughout the value chain. The procedure provides a clear process of managing human rights complaints from start to finish as follows;        

1. Complaints received via whistle blowing channels;
    1.1 Big C Whistle Blowing
          - Direct call to investication team 24 hours
          - Call center 1756 during 08.00 - 22.00 hrs.
          - Big C website
          - QR code
    1.2 BJC Whistle Blowing
          - Direct call 023671401
          - e-mail: comsec@bjc.co.th
          - Post to HR or company secretary
          - BJC website 

2. The information will be kept confidential.

3. Investigation committee is set up to investigate.

4. Punishment approval

5. Report as appropriate

 

Remediation and Grievance Mechanism

 

BJC has established a process of receiving complaints, correcting actions, providing justice, punishing the perpetrators and compensating the victims appropriately. If there is a case relating to human rights occurs, the responsible departments will report the issues to human resources management. Following this process, the investigation will take place to navigate the roots of the problems. The committee for investigation will also be appointed to Establish a Commission of Inquiry to consider and convict those who commit crimes in accordance with the company's requirements and/or consider legal action in case of wrongdoing in violation of the law, as well as to consider remedies for those affected appropriately.

In terms of compensation, in addition to providing justice to all parties, BJC also focuses on treating those who have been subjected to human rights abuses in both monetary and non-monetary ways. With a compliance with the law, BJC place importance on rehabilitation and care for both physical and mental health conditions, as well as putting great emphasis on preventive planning so that the case does not happen again. The compensation can be categorized as follows:

 

1. Monetary Compensation: 
- Claims for physical and mental recovery: the cost of maintaining and recovering the physical and mental health of those affected.
- Socioeconomic claims: expenses for material damages and opportunity costs.

2. Non-monetary Compensation:

- The rehabilitation of physical and mental health: in addition to monetary compensation, other actions may be required for recovery.

- Satisfaction is our focus to strengthen the relationships between the company and those who are affected. This may include expressing regrets and apologies in public and private, along with long-term care.

- The prevention of recurrence is ensured for those who are affected and stakeholders. This is to prevent a repetition in the future.

 

Types of Remediation Actions

BJC has identified the following types of remediation actions;

1. Immediate remediation actions refer to the remediation actions that must be executed immdediately when an incident occurs.

2. Remediation actions related to BJC's policy, law and regulations refer to the steps or process of remediation actions, stated in the company's policy, law or regulations.

3. Long-term remediation actions refer to longer-term of remediation actions taken place in a period of time  such as rehabilitation.

 

 

Human Rights, Diversity, and Inclusion Training 2022

In order to raise human rights’ awareness and equally respect to all level of staff in the organization, BJC has set up Human Rights Training for all employees through online HR application. Furthermore, post-test are provided to evaluate the effectiveness of the training session. The post-test also include an opportunity for employees to provide additional suggestions for future session improvements. To ensure corporate wide awareness and understanding against violations against human rights, BJC is committed to continuously improve the knowledge and understanding of employees in the human rights to be more effective.    

1. BJC Human Rights Training

Annually, human rights training for all employees is conducted in order to raise human rights awareness and equal respect among all levels of staff in the organization. In 2022, human rights training session was delivered via an online platform using HR mobile application. The content of the training session includes BJC’s Human Rights Policy and Supplier Code of Conduct, The UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGP), guidelines for human rights violations and Human Rights Due Diligence Process (HRDD), whistle blowing procedure for reporting on human rights issues and BJC’s framework for business practices in accordance with the human rights principles.  93% BJC employees had completed the training session. The total number of hours devoted to training on human rights was 4,053 hours.

2. Human Rights, Diversity and Inclusion Training for Factories

To promote human rights, diversity and inclusion at workplace, beside the trainings at the headquarter only, BJC had gone beyond by organizing training sessions at its factories.  All participants were encouraged to have a 2-way communication or an open discussion at the training sessions. In the 4^th quarter of 2022, BJC’s Sustainability and Risk Management Department arranged an onsite sustainability training at Thai Beverage Can Limited in Saraburi province, Rubia Industries Limited in Samut Prakan province, Thai-Scandic Steel Company Limited in Rayong province, Thai Malaya Glass Company Limited in Saraburi province and Berli Jucker Cellox Company Limited in Prachin Buri Province.  The training highlighted critical sustainability topics which also included human rights, diversity and inclusion and the main content covered as follows;

After each training, the related issues and questions from each factory were discussed and recommendations were given. From the factories, there were a total of 100 managers and function heads attended the training.

 

3. Human Rights & Diversity Training for HR Personnel

BJC believes diversity recruiting is an important step toward creating an inclusive workplace that is reflective of the customers it serves, and best prepared to compete in a changing economy and marketplace.  The training on human rights and diversity for HR Personnel has been conducted virtually, as an interactive sharing session where the HR personnel of BJC and its subsidiaries could share and discuss their related cases.  The ground knowledge and global trends on human rights and diversity, especially for recruitment process has been provided by Sustainability & Risk Management Department. There were 60 HR personnels attended the session.

4. Human Rights Training for Big C Store Staffs

Ensuring respect for human rights presents a growing challenge for businesses, with increasing public awareness and customer expectations.  BJC realizes that Big C customers have also become more concerned about their rights. The company has then placed even higher value than before on human rights, especially when it comes to services and direct contact with customers.

Human rights training for Big C store staffs had been conducted for over 200 stores nationwide, with an objective to create a common understanding of the standards of behaviors expected from all employees under matters relating to "Human Rights and Customer Service".  In the training, the store staffs have learnt about important human rights risks related to customer service, covering health and safety, equity and data privacy.  Business cases have also been shared and discussed in the interactive Q&A session.

5. Human Rights Training at Asia Books

As Thailand’s first and major importer retailer and distributor of English books, Asia Books Co., Ltd.’s nature of business included providing professional service and assistance to the customers.  Accordingly, BJC had organized a session on human rights training for all Asia Book employees in order to enhance the service excellence.  The training went beyond human rights theory by focusing on Do & Don’t and real case studies that the employees could easily apply to their work.

BJC had set a clear target to ensure that 100% of staff at Asia Book store received the training, and this objective was achieved in 2022. The company's management took the responsibility of monitoring and evaluating the performance of the employees by assigning each store manager with the task. The company also ensured that the staff's performance was regularly reviewed by considering the human rights due diligence score

Initiatives 2022

 

1. DiverCity Project

In 2022 BJC initiated DiverCity Project, with a tagline DiverCity – A Community for Everyone. The project was initiated to promote the company’s corporate-wide Diversity and Non-discrimination Management Policy and to encourage all employees and stakeholders to experience true diversity, where there was no discrimination regarding differences in age, gender, religion, race, nationality, disability, or marital status. A variety of related engagement activities were planed and organized throughout the year, which targeted to continue from year 2022 onwards.

            1.1 DiverCity of Gender – A Community for All Genders

            To celebrate Pride Month, in June 2022 BJC organized activities to promote gender diversity at workplace, which included;

• DiverCity Talk, where celebrities were invited as guest speakers to share their thoughts, experiences and inspirations in gender diversity and over 120 employees had participated,
• DiverCity Games and Photoshoot, where all employees could participate in photoshoots and gender diversity quizzes that were specially designed to share applicable knowledge to the employees in a fun way,
• DiverCity Shoot & Share, where the company encouraged all of its employees to share photos and stories related to gender diversity on social media and won prizes.  The following hashtags were created; #DiverCity #DiverCityofGender #BJCBigCDiverCity.

 

1.2 Sanook Kids Big Day

Going beyond the corporate-wide CSR strategy in supporting education, BJC realizes the inclusion of children with disabilities that they also have the right to access necessary knowledge to improve their competencies, as well as the right to have proper education and well-being. The event “Sanook Kids Big Day” was organized at Big C Rama 4 in August, aiming to provide an opportunity for children with disabilities to explore their interests and experience future career path. The event was attended by more than 30 volunteers from the company, who participated and educated more than 40 students with various disabilities such as brain disorders.  100 % of the volunteer employees were satisfied with the activity and looking forward to participate in such activity again.

1.3 Other Activities

Other activities were organized to promote diversity and inclusion included online awareness building, online quizzes and diversity movies.  Moreover, BJC encouraged all genders and generations to participate in games and competitions such as Halloween Costume Competition and Loy Kratong Pageant Competition.  There were approximately 100 employees participated in each activity.  The activities boosted up employee engagement which had contributed to the improved employee engagement rate, shown in Employee Management Chapter.