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Employee rights
Our objectives
Heineken wants to assure compliance with the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights and more
specifically with the provisions that govern the
rights of its employees.
Our strategy
The Heineken Value and Business Principles make
reference to the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights and contain provisions on some of the
most important employee rights. In addition,
Heineken is a signatory to the United Nations
Global Compact. As is the case with most of the
provisions of our Business Principles, they need
to be further elaborated into policies. Heineken
aims to have an Employee Rights policy adopted
in 2008.
Since 2003, we have been measuring the
operating companies' performance on employee
rights through or annual Opco Survey. These
measurements provide us with valuable insights
on areas such as child labour and employee
representation. The most important findings are
reported publicly in our Sustainability Data Sheet.
We believe that operating companies themselves
should be responsible for upholding the rights
of their employees. They should assess their
own practice and evaluate whether they act in
compliance with international legal standards,
such as the ILO conventions.
Activities in 2007
In recent years, we have discussed some
elementary principles of employee rights with our
European Works Council. In 2007, we evaluated
the results of these discussions and concluded that
the draft policies we had discussed did not cover
all aspects of employee rights. Therefore, we re
drafted the document which is now the subject of
internal review and comment.
In the summer, we engaged in dialogue with the
International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel,
Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers'
Associations (IUF) in relation to a labour dispute
at one of our business locations in Russia. After
an active and open dialogue between the IUF,
Heineken Group and our top management in Russia,
a plan was developed that should lead to a better
mutual understanding between the local trade
unions and local managers who are responsible
for the contacts with employee representatives.
Joint training of union representatives and local
managers is the cornerstone of this plan.
What we will do in 2008
Finalise and publish our employee rights policy
and plan the roll-out
Actively promote the use of the Quick Scan of
the Human Rights Compliance Assessment tool
by our operating companies
Respond adequately to potential incidents,
ensuring a solution that is in line with the
international conventions covering this issue.
Business ethics
Our objectives
Heineken wants to run its business with respect for
international and national laws and regulations and
in compliance with ethical standards. It expects its
employees to obey the legal requirements in the
host country and to take their business decisions
solely in the best interest of the Company and
its stakeholders.
Our strategy
In order to reach our objectives we have adopted
an approach based on the following pillars:
The Heineken Code of Business Conduct
containing the rules that we want our
employees to follow (in place on a country-by-
country basis since 2005)
The Heineken Whistle-Blowing Procedure
Audit programmes designed to measure the
uptake and effectiveness of these instruments.
Activities in 2007
The Code of Business Conduct was implemented
in Heineken Russia, meaning that at the year-end
of 2007, only five of our operating companies had
not completed the transposition of the Code of
Business Conduct into a local Code. The Whistle-
Blowing Procedure was implemented in the
sub-Saharan African operations and in Heineken
Russia, meaning that again, five markets have yet
to implement the process. This was in addition to
the previously reported countries that are unable
to fully implement, given French regulatory
limitations.
We modified the Heineken Whistle-Blowing
Procedure in order to assure compliance with the
privacy requirements within the EU. This revised
procedure is scheduled to be submitted to the
Executive Board for approval in the first months
of 2008.
Heineken N.V. Sustainability Report 2007
