Human Rights

We believe full-heartedly in treating all our stakeholders with dignity, respect, equality and consideration for their human rights. To promote the rights of all stakeholder groups, In FY2021 the F&N Group, together with F&NHB has conducted Human Rights Due Diligence process for the first time. Following that, we plan for a systematic review of the annual human rights assessment, and conduct a major assessment every 3 years.

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1. POLICY COMMITMENT

F&NHB Human Rights Commitment applies to all activities (i.e., direct activities, products, or services), as well as to all of F&NHB’s directors, executive officers, employees, and all business operations and associated activities. The Group’s suppliers and business partners, are expected and strongly encouraged to support and align with our Human Rights Policy and commitments, where applicable.

Moreover, we extend these expectations and commitments throughout the Company’s value chain, to all relevant stakeholders and affected rights holders, including: customers, local communities, and vulnerable groups (i.e. women, pregnant women, children, Indigenous Peoples, migrant workers, third-party contracted labor, local communities, minority groups, refugees, stateless individuals, disabled people, elderly, and LGBTQI+ identifying individuals).

F&NHB’s human rights commitments include:

  • Prohibition of child labor, forced labor, human trafficking, and discrimination and harassment.
  • Respect and promote the equality, diversity, the right to freedom of association and collective bargaining, and fair remuneration. Also the fair working conditions, addressing the elimination of excessive working hours and supporting the right to a minimum or living wage, where required by the country’s regulation. We also respect and promote health and safety, data privacy and the environment of our stakeholders.

We expect all our stakeholders to be aware and align with these human rights commitments, where applicable

To promote and respect the rights of all stakeholder groups, we established the F&NHB’s Human Rights Policy that upholds under domestic and international laws, rules, and regulations. The Human Rights Policy was developed to align with the related human rights principles under the international standards, including the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, as well as the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (“UNGP”), United Nations Global Compact, and the International Bill of Human Rights and The International Labor Organization’s Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work.

Click here to view the policy.

2. ASSESS ACTUAL AND POTENTIAL IMPACTS (HUMAN RIGHTS ASSESSMENT)

The human rights risk assessment covered 100% of F&NHB’s operational sites which were categorized by business activities:

  • Main business activities: Sourcing, Production, Distribution and Logistics, and Marketing and Sales
  • Supporting business activity: Human Capital/ Human Resources

In 2021, we also conducted human rights risk assessment for our new merger company, and we plan to continue to conduct assessment for new business relations (i.e. mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures) in the future.

The Human Rights Risk Assessment Covers Actual and Potential Human Rights Issues As Follows:
Labour Rights
  • Working conditions and fair remuneration
  • Health and safety
  • Freedom of association and rights to collective bargaining
  • Discrimination and harassment
  • Illegal forms of labour (including child labour, forced labour and human trafficking)
Community and Environmental Rights
  • Community health and safety
  • Community standard of living
  • Community access to water and sanitation
  • Land acquisition
Supplier Rights
  • Supplier data privacy
  • Supplier discrimination
Customer Rights
  • Consumer health and safety
  • Customer data privacy
  • Customer discrimination
The Human Rights Risk Assessment Covered Employees and at-risks/ Vulnerable Groups.
Vulnerable Groups Considered:
  • Women/ Pregnant Women
  • Children
  • Indigenous People
  • Migrant Workers
  • Third-part contracted labor
  • Local Communities
  • LGBTQI+
  • People with Disabilities
  • Elderly
  • Other minorities (e.g. stateless, refugee
F&NHB's Value Chain
Business Activities and Associated Activities
Sourcing
  • Screening
  • Retaining
Production
  • Dairy
  • Beverage
Distribution and Logistics
  • Distribution Center & Warehousing
  • Logistics
Marketing and Sales
  • Marketing
  • Sales
Supporting Unit
  • Human Capital
Human Rights Risk Assessment Methodology
1. Human Rights Issues Identification Identify all relevant human rights issues to F&NHB’s own operations, value chain, and new business relations by considering impact to business and potential rights holders effected. This is done through peer benchmarking of companies in a dairy and beverage sectors, and updating global trend of human rights including COVID-19 implication. The scope of human rights are considered based on potential rights holders affected, and impact/influence to business.

Identify affected groups of stakeholders, including vulnerable people i.e. women, children, indigenous people, migrant labour, third-party contracted labor, minority groups (e.g. refugee, stateless) local communities, LGBTQI+ and disabled people

2. Inherent Risk Ranking Ranking inherent risks of identified human rights issues

(Risks without controls/ measures)

3. Residual Risk Ranking Ranking residual risks of identified human rights issues

(Risks with existing company’s controls/ measures)

4. Risk Prioritisation Prioritising human rights salient issues, referring to identified human rights issues with high residual risk
Human Rights Risk Matrix

The assessment of human rights risk level for inherent and residual risks was conducted using Human Rights Risk Assessment Criteria to determine the significance of the human rights.

There are 2 assessment comprises of the Axis-X and the Axis-Y.

  • The Axis-X is the assessment level of Likelihood.
  • The Axis-Y is the assessment level of Severity.

Level of Likelihood and Severity can be illustrated in Human Rights Risk Matrix.

Salient issues are identified as those with ‘Medium’ to ‘High’ human rights risks.

Human Rights Risk Matrix
Risk Prioritisation (Identification of Salient Issues)
F&N Human Rights Risk Matrix
Human Rights Risk Assessment Criteria
chart-human-risk-severity
chart-human-risk-likelihood
F&NHB Human Rights Performance
RISK ASSESSMENT RESULTS
100%

of F&NHB’s operations and business activities were assessed on human rights risk and impact

18.75%

of F&NHB’s business activities have been identified to have high human rights risks level (salient issues).

  • 3 out of 16 of F&NHB’s operational sites have been identified to have high human rights risks level (salient issues)
  • There is a total of 9 consolidated salient human rights issues across the F&N Value Chain.
100%

of F&NHB’s operations and business activities which identified at human rights risks, have mitigation measures and remediation process implemented.

3. INTEGRATE FINDINGS AND POTENTIAL IMPACTS

Once the salient human rights issues have been identified, the next step is to design and implement mitigation measures and preventive and corrective actions to prevent the actual and potential human rights impacts, associated with the F&NHB’s business activities, from occurring in the future. When these management measures have been implemented, F&NHB will further monitor and review the performance with a view to ensuring continuous development for maximum efficiency.

In 2022, F&N has a total of 9 salient human rights issues.

  • Employee Health and Safety
  • Community Health and Safety
  • Working Condition
  • Community Standard of Living
  • Community Access to Water and Sanitation
  • Consumer Health and Safety
  • Consumer Discrimination
  • Customer/Consumer Data Privacy
  • Employee Discrimination

There were no Human Rights salient issues with a ‘High’ residual risk rating.

Employee Health And Safety
Human Rights Issues Mitigation Measures
Actual Issues:

  • Marketing & Sales: Client-focused departments have an increased risk of being infected with the COVID-19 virus (i.e. employees exposed to virus during working hours since it is expected for them to meet new people in high frequencies)
  • Production + Human Capital: Minor work injuries and accidents
  • Logistics: Road accidents during transportation, minor vehicle malfunction (i.e. flat tires)
  • Compliance with Public Health Regulations on COVID-19 measures e.g. face masks, hand sanitisers, temperature checks
  • Approved paid leaves for vaccinations & launched vaccination programme for employees
  • Tracking employees’ vaccination progress
  • Offer doctor consultations and in-house panel clinics in large-scale production plants
  • Increased safety training and safety briefing to identify potential risks at the start of the workday
Community Health and Safety & Community Standard of Living

 

Human Rights Issues Mitigation Measures
Actual Issues:

  • Marketing & Sales: Spread of COVID-19 virus from employees infected to members of the community e.g. during large scale events
  • Marketing & Sales: Road accidents will increase health and safety risks for community members
  • Marketing & Sales: Reckless driving complaints of the distributor in the local area
  • Compliance with Public Health Regulations
  • Provide PPEs such as face masks, face shields, hand sanitisers to employees
  • Increased safety training and safety briefing to identify potential risks at the start of the workday
  • F&N Voice channel available for employees to report on safety risks and concerns
Employee Discrimination
Human Rights Issues Mitigation Measures
Actual Issue:

  • Human Capital: An employee felt uncomfortable to report a case of verbal harassment until after resigning from the company
  • Inform employees on various channels and measures available to raise discrimination and harassment issues e.g. welfare committee, reporting channel, mental health hotline
  • Implement additional trainings for supervisors on preventing discrimination and harassment to employees
Customer/Consumer Discrimination
Human Rights Issues Mitigation Measures
Potential Issue:

  • Discrimination by prioritising against certain groups of customers/consumers
  • Ensure F&N’s products are targeted to all consumers
  • Marketing strategies are suitable for a multi-racial society and ensure no content are inappropriate or discriminatory against one’s gender, race, culture, etc
4. TRACKING AND COMMUNICATION

The Group continuously tracks, monitors, and assesses our human rights risks in order to receive inputs on any issues and concerns related to human rights violations. We communicate and educate all employees on our Human Rights practices. We promote and support cooperation from all directors, executives, employees, and all groups of stakeholders within the business value chain in reporting on any forms of human rights suspicions, incidents, and violations arising from the business operations through the Group’s established and dedicated channels.

The results from these channels will be used to consider any improvements, and to develop appropriate mitigation and remediation measures. We evaluate the implementation on human rights policies and mitigation measures, according to the tracking and monitoring processes.

We are determined to conduct the human rights due diligence process regularly to identify, review and evaluate any risks and impacts relating to a violation of human rights caused by the Group’s business operations and associated activities.

Our Human Rights Performances will be reported annually in our Sustainability Report and Company’s website.

Communication Channel
Fraser & Neave Holdings Bhd
F&N Point, No. 3, Jalan Metro Pudu 1,
off Jalan Yew, 55100 Kuala Lumpur,
MALAYSIA.
Tel: +60 3 9235 2288
https://www.fn.com.my

5. REMEDIATE ADVERSE IMPACTS

F&NHB realises that its business activities may potentially cause/ contribute or have linkage with human rights violation of relevant stakeholders. F&NHB is thus committed and strived to mitigate such potential risks and violation. To ensure fulfillment of such commitment, human rights risk assessment will be conducted within appropriate timeframe. Henceforth, additional mitigation measures will be established with objectives to remediate and reduce possibility of human right violations, which may be caused or endorsed by business activities of F&NHB. In addition, monitoring, reporting of performance and reviewing of policy commitment regarding to human rights will be ensured in order to maximize effectiveness of the company’s human rights management.

In 2022, there was no human rights violation cases. Therefore, there were no remediation measures taken. We will perform a systematic review of the human rights assessment annually and follow with a major assessment every three years.