Question: In the modern slavery statement, does the company explain one or more of the corrective steps it has taken (or would take) in response to modern slavery incidents in their operations and/or supply chain?
Answer:
Worker remediation,
Corrective action plan,
In Development,
Remediation is mentioned but no details of the process or measures
18036186
Walk Free
2022
Verified by Steward check_circle

Page 11 - "In 2021, we introduced a process to conduct the HRRA prior to the opening of new operations. Weconducted our first HRRA in Turkey to identify potential human rights risks for future Samsung employees, supply chain workers, and surrounding communities in the macro-context of Turkey's human rights track record. With the support of sustainable business and human rights consultancies, Enact and twentyfifty, we identified four potential salient human rights risks of our own production sites in Turkey; decent working conditions, health and safety, supplier responsibility, and freedom of expression. A total of 21 actions were recommended to be fully in line with UNGPs, 20 of which were completed by December 2022. In 2023, we plan to develop and introduce our internal HRIA based on communications with our internal and external stakeholders on their grievances, to identify salient human rights impacts at our production sites."

 

Page 12 - "Samsung offers a variety of direct and anonymous grievance channels in various languages for individuals or groups that are adversely affected by our business operations (e.g. Samsung Electronics' Global Business Ethics & Compliance system (www.sec- audit.com), corporate hotline (+82-2255-0114). Grievances are promptly investigated in line with our internal procedure and timelines to seek effective and satisfactory remedies. Upon detecting human rights abuses, we investigate their root causes and change our systems, processes, and practices if deemed necessary to prevent the recurrence of similar cases. Our grievance channels are open to internal and external stakeholders including our suppliers’ employees and civil society organizations (. While most of our channels are operated at the corporate level, we also partner with third-party organizations in select countries to provide additional channels for our employees.Samsung publicly reports the number of worksite grievances it receives in its annual SustainabilityReport. In 2022, a total of 23 840 grievances were reported, an increase of 1.97% on the previous year.The total number of grievances filed and the breakdown of grievance types in 2022 were found to be similar to those of the previous year."

 

 

Page 12 - "The audit results showed that most practices of the production sites were in compliance with the Policy and Guides. However, it was discovered that 307 migrant workers hired by one of the four production sites had paid for part of the transportation expenses incurred while moving from their homes to the location to meet with the recruitment agency in their home country. The amounts paid by the workers (approximately USD 9,876 in total) were reimbursed after the audit. To prevent the recurrence of similar incidents, we have continued to engage in activities to raise the awareness of local HR managers, recruitment agencies, and workers on our internal standards for migrant workers’ rights, including the prohibition of recruitment fees. The four production sites developed corrective actions for minor non-compliance with the Internal Guide for Migrant Worker. Local employee relations experts are monitoring the follow-up steps taken by the sites. Through the audits, we confirmed that the total amount of outstanding reimbursements decreased by 88.6% since the introduction of the revised Migrant Worker Policy in 2020 compared to the 3-year period of 2017 to 2019."

 

 

Page 16 - "Samsung supports its suppliers in establishing and operating an internal grievance handling system to facilitate communication between the executive management and employees. We have operated a direct hotline since 2013 to collect reports on violations of the work environment criteria or human rights by our suppliers via telephone and email, among others, to complement on-site audits. We ensure the protection of informants’ privacy throughout the entire grievance process so that employees at our suppliers can submit reports without fearing retaliation. Our organizational unit dedicated to grievance handling handles grievances in line with our internal protocol and timeline and monitors respective suppliers to ensure that they take remedial actions. Training and other measures are taken with the respective suppliers to support the prevention of reoccurrence. An informant satisfaction survey, operated since 2020, supports effective case handling and the integration of workers voices into the process.We prohibit forced labour and the collection of recruitment fees from our suppliers' migrant workers through the Supplier Code of Conduct. Based on this policy, a total of USD 1,125,734 was reimbursed to 1,649 migrant workers from 11 countries from 2017 to 2022."

 

Aditi Chatterjee.....2024-03-06 10:49:44 UTC