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Social, societal and environmental responsibility
5.1 Danone social, societal and environmental approach
DANONE
REGISTRATION DOCUMENT 2015
172
IUF agreements
Danone has signed framework agreements with the IUF (International
Union of Food workers), beginning in 1988. As of December 31, 2015,
nine global agreements and one European agreement between
Danone and the IUF were in effect.
These agreements define rules and best practices, particularly with
regard to diversity, social dialogue, steps to be taken for business
changes impacting employment or working conditions, combating
all forms of discrimination and encouraging diversity, trade union
rights, and procedures for consulting employee representatives in
the case of business changes with consequences for employment.
The latest global agreement between Danone and the IUF was signed
on September 29, 2011 concerning health, safety, working conditions
and stress, and is a follow-up to the framework agreement signed
in 2010 with trade union organizations in France.
This agreement defines the following principles:
•
consideration for the human consequences of change, in advance
of major changes to the organization;
•
preservation of the balance between personal and professional life;
•
identification of ways to simplify work to improve efficiency as
well as employee well-being;
•
employee participation in safety-related preventive actions to
ensure their safety as well as their right to remove themselves
from a hazardous situation; and
•
implementation of medical monitoring at all subsidiaries and sites.
These framework agreements between Danone and the IUF are
implemented at each subsidiary and their application is evaluated
jointly each year by a representative from Danone and a represen-
tative from the IUF.
RESPECT
The RESPECT policy aims to protect the Sustainable Development
Principles across Danone's entire supply chain and in particular
with regard to Danone's major suppliers.
This policy was launched in 2005 and has been implemented since
2006 in all Divisions to ensure compliance with the seven funda-
mental labor principles formalized by Danone since 2001 based
on standards defined by the International Labor Organization: (i)
child labor, (ii) forced labor, (iii) non-discrimination, (iv) freedom
of association and the right to collective bargaining, (v) workplace
health and safety, (vi) working hours, and (vii) compensation. These
principles are described in the section hereafter.
The RESPECT methodology is based on a system of controls that
includes: (i) suppliers' signature of the Sustainable Development
Principles, (ii) a map of supplier risks drawn up by purchasing
managers, (iii) external labor audits of the most “at risk” suppliers,
(iv) corrective action plans in case of non-compliance identified
during the audit, and (v) monitoring of this action plan by Danone's
purchasing managers.
RESPECT is based on a specific tool called Sedex (Supplier Ethical
Data Exchange), a dedicated online information-sharing and pooling
platform used by many companies in the food and beverage sector
which allows their suppliers to (i) enter information regarding their
production sites, sustainable development and societal responsibility
policies, and (ii) share this informationwith several customers at once.
In 2009, the scope of the RESPECT policy was expanded to include
environmental and ethical sections.
Based on these three pillars –social, environmental and ethical–
RESPECT constitutes a global policy for managing sustainable
development standards with suppliers.
Food Nutrition Health Charter
Danone'sFoodNutritionHealthCharter describes the concretepolicies
that result from Danone's mission of “bringing health through food
to as many people as possible.” This charter, implemented in 2005
and updated in 2009, formalizes Danone's five commitments. These
commitments address the concerns of authorities on food-related
public health issues.
The five commitments include:
•
proposing nutritional solutions that are continuously tailored to
nutritional needs and recommendations, local tastes and incomes;
•
developing products with relevant, scientifically proven health
benefits;
•
informing consumers clearly and advertising responsibly;
•
promoting healthy diet and lifestyle;
•
addressing major societal challenges related to health and
nutrition.