Kesko completes a human rights assessment and publishes a human rights commitment

KESKO PRESS RELEASE 23.9.2016 AT 11.00 1(2)

Kesko has completed a human rights impact assessment in compliance with UN's Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. The extensive survey involved listening to the views of customers, personnel and high-risk country factory workers on human rights and on the implementation of human rights in the K-Group's operations.

In 2014, Kesko initiated a human rights impact assessment in compliance with the UN's Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. The principles obligate business enterprises to respect human rights in all their operations. Business enterprises shall survey the human rights impacts and risks of their operations, create systems to avoid the risks and lay out processes for any corrective actions.

During the work, identified salient human rights impacts were investigated, risks related to them were assessed, and monitoring, indicators and corrective actions were agreed on.Human rights assessment is a continuous process for Kesko that will be reviewed every three years and updated on the website.

Non-discrimination, accessibility and availability important for customers

During the autumn of 2015 and spring of 2016, the views of stakeholders on human rights and their implementation in the operations of the K-Group were surveyed.

"We heard our stakeholders in order to investigate how different customer groups saw human rights implemented in various situations in stores. District coordinators of SASK interviewed factory workers in factories manufacturing Kesko's branded goods in four high-risk countries: China, India, Bangladesh and the Philippines. For our own personnel, we utilised Kesko's personnel survey and surveyed chief shop stewards", says Matti Kalervo, Kesko's Vice President for Corporate Responsibility.

Customer hearings reinforced Kesko's view that the right to health, children's right to special protection and the prohibition of discrimination are seen by customers as the most central human rights that Kesko has to take care of. Special attention has to be paid to the zero tolerance of discrimination, the development and maintenance of grievance mechanisms for discrimination as well as the development and maintenance of accessibility and availability.

The results from the assessments of high-risk country factories in China, India, Bangladesh and the Philippines were largely consistent with BSCI and SA8000 reports. Employment relationships were found to be fragile, and there were omissions in working hours and overtime pay, among other things. Employee organisations were found to be practically prohibited. Kesko has forwarded the information to the BSCI organisation for future development of auditing procedures.