With external scrutiny on human rights intensifying over the recent years, Hindustan Zinc continues to give utmost importance to upholding people’s fundamental rights while carrying out everyday business. We have zero tolerance for any form of forced and compulsory labour, child labour, slavery and human trafficking. We respect the rights of employees to associate freely and exercise collective bargaining. We are committed to being transparent in our disclosure on how we are addressing the human rights related challenges and opportunities concerning our workforce as well as local communities. Our Human Rights Policy is aligned with the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and it covers all our employees, suppliers, contractors, joint ventures, and NGOs.
The Company ensures safe, suitable and sanitary work facilities for all its workers. Our policy on health and hygiene complies with national and international standards. It ensures that workers are provided with protective personal gear, equipment, and training necessary to perform their tasks safely at the workplace. We also ensure that the work week is limited to 48 hours, overtime is infrequent and limited, and workers are given reasonable breaks and rest periods.
Committed to the disclosure obligations under the UK Modern Slavery Act 2015, we ensure that modern day slavery, forced labour or servitude does not prevail in our business and supply chains. We strictly monitor all functions to ensure that our contractors, suppliers and business partners do not use any child, forced or trafficked labour.
The unions at each location have organised themselves under a Federation structure. Each location has a workers’ union affiliated to INTUC recognised by the Company’s management and at the corporate level, there is the Hindustan Zinc Workers’ Federation (HZWF) which was formed on October 23, 1982, and recognised by the Company vide letter dated November 27, 1982. It is the sole bargaining agent at the apex level with a clear-cut approach that – ‘If the company grows, our growth will be taken care of’. It is comprised of core members from the Company-recognised union across location.
Our organisation supports a precautionary approach to environmental issues. This includes identification of any soil and water contamination at any of our sites, along with assessment of the environmental impact and remedies. We conduct systematic risk assessments of materials used, as well as the products and processes deployed, to apply the precautionary approach. We take measures to prevent and reduce the production of waste and ensure responsible waste management.
The Company takes a clear stand against corruption. To train all our workers and spread awareness on this sensitive agenda is a key priority. Every employee is mandated to undergo the code of conduct training at least once a year with focus on ethical behaviour and conduct along with our internal and external stakeholders. To ensure that not a single instance of unethical behaviour goes unnoticed, we have formulated the whistle blower policy to empower workers to report any instance of unethical behaviour or harassment at the workplace. This policy preserves anonymity and mentions only the whistle blower contact number for reporting instances of unethical behaviour.