Human and Workplace Rights
11/6/2018
Our commitment to respecting human rights is fundamental to our 2020 Vision and our ability to operate a successful global enterprise.
At The Coca‑Cola Company, respect for human and workplace rights is engrained in our culture and guides our interactions with employees, bottling partners, suppliers, customers, consumers, and the communities we serve. Our Human Rights Policy, along with our Supplier Guiding Principles, establishes a foundation for managing our business around the world in accordance with our commitment to respect human rights.
In 2011, The Coca‑Cola Company formally endorsed the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, adopted by UN Human Rights Council in 2011. Coca‑Cola has focused and will continue to focus on all three of the components that must be put in place in a corporate context under the Principles:
- A policy commitment to meet the responsibility to respect human rights
- A due diligence process to identify, prevent, mitigate and be accountable for human rights abuses
- Processes to enable the remediation of any adverse human rights impacts the Company causes or to which it contributes
This framework is a key touchstone for our policies and programs related to workplace and human rights. We expect our Company, bottling partners and suppliers to avoid causing or contributing to adverse human rights impacts as a result of business actions. Furthermore, our Company, bottling partners and suppliers are responsible for preventing or mitigating adverse human rights impacts directly linked to their operations, products or services by their business relationships.
See our Human & Workplace Rights Content in recent Sustainability Reports (ENGLISH VERSION ONLY):
Our dedicated Global Workplace Rights (GWR) group is charged with addressing global issues, identifying human rights risks throughout our value chain, and developing easy-to-use due-diligence tools to help us identify and mitigate human rights risks.
Under GWR’s leadership we regularly analyze potential and actual human rights impacts throughout our value chain, and we discuss priority governance of human rights issues as well as our progress against our commitments with the Public Issues and diversity Review Committee of our Board of Directors on an ongoing basis.
In December 2014, we launched an updated Human Rights Policy that combines our 2007 Human Rights Statement, 2007 Workplace Rights Policy and 2012 Global Mutual Respect Policy. This unified document is guided by the principles expressed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Labour Organization’s Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, and the UN Global Compact. The policy also references and is aligned with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.
We also published an enhanced set of requirements on Land, HIV/AIDS, Pregnancy and Non-Job Related Medical Testing, and Migrant Worker Recruitment and Employment Practices. These requirements were incorporated into our social audits of suppliers.
Additionally, we are committed to open dialogue and collaboration with an increasing number of stakeholders, focusing on transparency, speed of communication and annual reporting to demonstrate respect for human rights. Some of our communication vehicles include:
- Regular updates to our global website;
- Annual Sustainability Reports;
- Opinions and Articles on Journey;
- Annual Company-wide employee communication and individual certification of our Code of Business Conduct and Human Rights Policy;
- Internal and External Communication on key dates, such Human Rights Day and World Day Against Child Labour;
- Bottler training;
- Supplier training;
- Annual Human Rights Conferences, hosted at our Corporate Headquarters, including the Golden Triangle (businesses (including customers), governments and civil society);
- Biannual Meetings and ongoing dialogue with the International Union of Food and Allied Workers; and
- Engagement with NGOs and others in a variety of forums, such as the annual UN Forum on Business and Human Rights.