Our Workplace Rights Policy and Human Rights Statement reflect international workplace rights principles.
Take a look at our policy. You’ll see that our policy contains the Company’s principles on freedom of association, forced labour, child labour, discrimination, work hours and wages, safe and healthy workplaces, workplace security and community and stakeholder engagement.
Coca-Cola has committed to being a leader in corporate responsibility and maintaining world-class standards for fair and dignified treatment of all the people who work for The Coca-Cola Company. Additionally, all of our suppliers are assessed according to adherence to our Supplier Guiding Principles, which emphasise the importance of responsible policies and practices.Coca-Cola in Colombia
In Colombia, a country where four percent of workers are unionised, 31 percent of the employees of Coca-Cola Colombian bottling partners belong to unions.
The safety of our employees is of paramount importance. Through both collective bargaining agreements and their own initiative, Coca-Cola bottlers work with unions and the government to provide emergency mobile phones, transportation to and from work, secure housing and a host of other measures to protect employees who feel unsafe. Additional security measures are routinely provided to union leaders and special measures are undertaken when a threat against unionised employees is brought to the attention of the bottler’s management. We’ve also established a 24-hour hotline for employees to confidentially report any workplace concerns and/or complaints.
Regarding the Black Eagle threats against SINALTRAINAL members, the independent
Colombian
- Reached out to the appropriate local authorities to request that they investigate the incidents and provide necessary protection to the individuals and their families;
- Granted the affected workers paid leaves of absence from work;
- Granted loans to install security cameras at the homes of affected workers;
- Set flexible working schedules for those workers upon their return to work after their leaves of absence;
- Provided individual transportation to and from work for those workers at that time.
In addition,
Cooperation in Colombia
According to Director Carlos Ortiz, one of the outstanding achievements
of the Colombia Beverage Workers Union is their relationship with Coca-Cola.
Hear what he has to say »
ILO Assessment
The ILO has completed its independent evaluation of
The report found that
The ILO did note some areas for improvement unrelated to legal compliance
concerning ideal or aspirational human resources practices, which Colombia
bottlers are currently evaluating in order to develop action plans for
such areas.
Child Labour
We firmly oppose the use of child labour, as noted in our Supplier
Guiding Principles. Any child labour allegation is a very serious
issue that we fully investigate. In fact, the
Partnering to Protect Salvadoran Children
Nine thousand children have been removed from the sugar cane fields in
El Salvador over the last three years through our efforts with the UN
and the Sugar Association. There is more work to be done but we have made
tremendous progress in understanding and addressing the root causes of
this serious issue.
We only buy from sugar mills that adhere to our standards and we constantly monitor for compliance. If we find a supplier is not meeting our standards, we take immediate action.
The active steps The
Coca-Cola has partnered with TechnoServe, a local NGO working with targeted co-ops to find alternative sources of income for youth 14-18 years of age, the most vulnerable age due to the lack of access to high school or vocational education opportunities in rural areas.- On
Coca-Cola 's recommendation, Fundazucar (the Salvadoran Sugar Association) engaged a social compliance auditing firm that helped the Association determine how to detect and control child labour and associated issues. Coca-Cola has publicly supported the proposal, authored by the World Bank and Business for Social Responsibility, to help position El Salvador as a responsible-sourcing country.
Turkey
The underlying labour issue in Turkey between a transportation sub-contractor
and the
More than 100 protestors gathered at the offices of CCI on July 20, 2006, and illegally broke into the facility. No action was taken for 10 hours after the protestors had broken into the facility, and several meetings were held between CCI management and the protestors to try to resolve the situation peacefully.
Drogheda
In August 2007, The
The Company had conducted a detailed review of operations in Ireland and concluded that the only realistic and feasible option was to close the Drogheda plant. The high-capacity plant in Ballina, along with the specialized plant in Athy, were determined to be sufficient to meet the current and future demand for concentrate and beverage base supply from Ireland.
The Company worked with affected employees and the local community to minimize the impact of the closure. The Company offered a generous redundancy and early retirement package together with financial advice, job search, re-training and business start-up assistance for the employees affected.
The Company operates unionized and non-unionized plants throughout the world, including Ireland. We respect the rights of our associates to join -- or not join -- labour unions, and ensure that those rights are exercised without fear of retaliation, repression or any other form of intimidation or discrimination.
Suppliers
The
Diversity
As a global business, our ability to understand, embrace and operate in a multicultural world -- both in the marketplace and in the workplace -- is critical to our sustainability. We work hard to ensure an inclusive and fair work environment for our associates. To this end, we provide diversity training on a regular basis and facilitate an ongoing dialogue that leads to better understanding of our colleagues, our suppliers, our customers, our stakeholders and ultimately, to greater success in the marketplace.
Promotion Rates
12 percent promotion rate for women in comparison to 10 percent for
men and 12 percent promotion rate for black and minority ethnic employees
in comparison to 11 percent for non-minorities (2006 figures).
