Disclosure on management approach for human rights

Human rights commitments and policy

Our human rights commitments and policy are the foundations of our management approach. As one of the first companies to sign the UN Global Compact, we are committed to advancing the principles of human rights within our sphere of influence. We support the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights and all other major international human rights standards, including the core conventions of the International Labor Organization. In 2004 we declared our official support for the draft ‘UN Norms on the Responsibilities of Transnational Corporations and Other Business Enterprises with Regard to Human Rights', Since then we have continued to seek practical ways of implementing the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, in collaboration with stakeholders, through the Francophone working group ‘Entreprises pour les Droits de l'Homme' (EDH), inspired by the Business Leaders Initiative for Human Rights (BLIHR). An internal working group on human rights, with members from different regions within ST, supports us in this initiative.

Our human rights' commitments are made operational through compliance with national laws and regulations, and with our own policies and procedures, to ensure the highest social and human rights standards. Since national laws and regulations vary according to the political and cultural standards of the countries in which we operate, we consider it our responsibility to provide a single company framework to define and implement human rights in the company. We therefore place significant emphasis on our internal policies and procedures and on the management and monitoring systems we have put in place to ensure their implementation.

Our Social Policy covers all key areas of human rights relevant to our sector. It translates the high level commitments reflected in our code of conduct, The Principles for Sustainable Excellence, into principles that can be concretely implemented through our internal procedures and activities.

We tailor our human rights policies and management systems to fit the specific sector and country context in which we operate. Our analysis of sector and country risk highlights the importance of clear internal policies and management in the following areas:

• The right to worker representation
• Working hours,
• Dismissal and restructuring,
• Minimum wages and benefits
• Protection against harassment and discrimination,
• Management of human rights in the supply chain.

With regard to management systems and monitoring of performance, our internal self-assessment tool ‘beSTick' serves both to define the management systems that our local sites are expected to have in place and act as the standard against which they can measure their performance and be audited against, both internally and externally. The first nine chapters of the ‘Social Accountability' domain of beSTick are dedicated to human rights and cover 55 questions on non-discrimination, fair treatment, fair wages, working hours and conditions, freedom of association and collective bargaining, child labor, forced labor, health and safety, and the rights of migrant workers. The tenth chapter covers business ethics. The questions have been designed to integrate two standards we consider to be important: SA8000 and the Electronics Industry Code of Conduct.

Sites report annually against these indicators, using them as an integral part of their risk-identification and risk management process, and must provide evidence to support their self-assessment. Periodical on-site reviews are carried out by the corporate TQCR function and the beSTick questions will progressively be integrated into internal audit programs with a view to carrying out formal external audits in the future. One site, in Shenzhen , China , has already been audited by a third party to the Electronics Industry Code of Conduct. We report externally on several human rights indicators in our annual CR Report. Our external reporting will seek to progressively integrate any company-wide results in human rights that are reliable and meaningful.

We consider our culture of Sustainable Excellence to be a key driver of our performance in human rights. Our ongoing communication and training on Corporate Responsibility includes information on human rights for all employees. HR managers at local level participate in local Sustainable Excellence steering committees, during which human rights performance is reviewed and local actions and programs are launched and monitored.

ST has a European Works Council, a requirement under European Union Law. The aim of the Council is to promote the participation of every worker in dialogue with the company. The Council has 21 representatives and meets annually. Should exceptional circumstances occur that affect the interests of the workers and employment, extraordinary meetings can be called. The Council is kept informed on transnational issues that affect the interests of workers.

The implementation of policies and procedures for human rights is the responsibility of local HR departments, under the supervision of the Corporate HR department and Vice President for HR. The Corporate Responsibility department, part of the Total Quality & Corporate Responsibility organization led by the Corporate Vice President for TQCR, provides support to HR departments in this process.