Based on international conventions and designed to provide a single set of standards for employees across diverse cultures and regulatory environments, the Maersk Global Labour Principles span our operations worldwide, covering every Maersk employee in every Maersk business unit.
The principles ensure decent and fair labour conditions for all our people and provide systems and processes for employees to raise concerns about their workplace. We believe they help reduce the risk of workplace disputes, and they enhance our ability to attract the talent we depend on throughout the world.
The Maersk Global Labour Principles reflect our commitment to the UN Global Compact, covering collective bargaining, discrimination, child labour and forced labour, as well as health, safety and security, working hours, compensation and fair procedures.
Dedicated whistle-blower system
As a supplement to internal reporting of employee concerns about possible violations of laws or group policies, the group offers a whistle-blower system hosted by a third-party service provider. This system allows employees and external parties to report alleged violations of laws or group policies, including discrimination and harassment to the service provider, which sends the reports to the group’s central legal and audit departments.
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Supplier labour breaches in Australia
In February 2011, the Australian Workers’ Union issued a press release highlighting the plight of Filipino workers illegally trafficked into Australia and earning three Australian dollars an hour, well below the minimum wage of AUD 15 an hour. The release exposed the practices of a staffing agency, Surveyspec, used by Maersk Drilling to contract four Filipino workers.
At the time, Maersk Drilling had employed the four men as painters on two vessels for a period of two years. Surveyspec had falsely led Maersk Drilling to believe that the workers had the correct working visas and were being paid $ 25 an hour. Once these labour abuses were discovered and verified, we immediately suspended our work with Surveyspec and cancelled the employment of the four men in question.
Looking forward we have now permanently discontinued our relationship with the staffing agency. In an effort to offset the disruption caused to the four workers, we have also offered them employment on our rigs – provided they are employed by an agency that operates in accordance with all legal requirements.
This serious breach of employee rights has highlighted the importance of our work to improve continuously procurement processes, as well as our auditing and response mechanisms.
To prevent this type of labour issue, during 2011 we have been implementing the Maersk Global Labour Principles, our code of labour standards that applies to all employees, wherever they work in the world. The Principles state that all suppliers must adhere to our third party code of conduct. If not presented with this code yet, suppliers will be during contract renewals and future contracts will also stipulate that we have the right to audit suppliers. |
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