Social indicators

Indicator Disclosure
No modern slavery; no forced labour or trafficking
 The Group implements and enforces systems and controls to ensure modern slavery is not taking place in the Group or in any of its suppliers or business partners (see the Group’s policy on sustainable and ethical business).
Payment of a living wage
 The Group intends to pay its employees a living wage, measured in relation to country where they are employed (see the Group’s policy on sustainable and ethical business). The Group provides substantial in-kind contributions, including decent housing to all workers and employees who require it access to quality childcare or school for the children of workers and employees.
No child labour
 The Group prohibits the use of child labour in all its own operations and by its suppliers. The minimum age of employment in the Group is 18 years, with the exception of work that is part of school curriculum (see the Group’s policy on sustainable and ethical business).
Temporary workers
 The Group’s objective is for its core activities to be performed by permanent, full-time employees. The Group will limit casual, temporary and day labour to jobs that are temporary or seasonal, or during initial development or replanting. The number of fixed term (temporary) workers reduced from 26% in 2021 to 16% in 2022. All basic benefits and prohibitions that are applicable to permanent workers apply to temporary workers, as well as additional national laws and regulations pertaining to casual and temporary employees (see the Group’s policy on sustainable and ethical business).
Equal opportunities and anti-discrimination
 The Group’s commitments to providing equal opportunities and prohibiting discrimination are defined in the Group’s policy on sustainable and ethical business. The Group will provide equal opportunity for all workers to obtain work and decent income and to develop their careers, without discriminating on the basis of ethnic origin, caste, national origin, religion, disability, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, union membership, political affiliation, or age. The Group will at all times comply with the law on discrimination in the process of dismissal, employment terms and conditions, pay and benefits, promotion and transfer opportunities, training, recruitment and redundancy. The Group will not tolerate any gender-based discrimination, such as limitation of roles, labelling, violence, intimidation, and excessive workload.
Inclusion of women
 Women represent 25% of our workforce. We will progressively address gender-based constraints faced by female workers and employees as recommended in the RSPO Practical Guidance on Gender Inclusion and Compliance to the 2018 RSPO Principles and Criteria (P&C) and the 2019 Independent Smallholder (ISH) Standard (2021).
Freedom of association
 The Group provides the opportunity for all workers to establish free, open, independent, democratic, and responsible workers’ unions and to register the union with the relevant statutory authority. All workers have the choice to be members of a workers’ union or not, without any coercion from any party whatsoever.
Health and Safety
 The Group is committed to creating a healthy and safe work environment for all employees, contractors, consultants, smallholders, vendors, suppliers, and guests of the company as defined in the Group’s policy on sustainable and ethical business. Plantation operations carry some intrinsic risks, which we identify and prioritise, using the widely known Hazard Identification Risk Assessment and Determining Control (HIRADC) method.  Whilst not certified with ISO 45001, the Group is guided by this standard to adopt a systematic and structured approach to safety management.

All information is for year ended December 2023

Workforce
Units 2023 2022
Total number of employees and workers Percent 12,719 11,545
Fixed term (temporary) employees or workers Percent 12 16
Women in the workforce (fixed term and permanent) Percent 25 25
Salary by gender1
Units 2023 2022
Grade C Percent 46 44
Grade D Percent 84 —
Grade E Percent 101 96
Grade F Percent 107 105
Grade G Percent 112 103
Grade H Percent 112 107

1Female pay as a percentage of male pay for each employee category (there are no women in Grades A and B)

Safety performance
Units 2023 2022
Fatalities Number 0 0
Injury frequency rate Annual rate measured using a multiplier of 200,000 7.45 4.21
Injury severity Days lost per injury 3.95 3.35

Further information:

Indicator Disclosure
Medical services
 The Group is committed to ensure that all workers and employees have access to adequate health care and emergency medical services. On the plantations, we make sure everybody who works for us has access to medical care, either in a local hospital or in clinics and medical centres we build and staff. There are 13 medical facilities at Group estates, and the doctors and medical staff employed by the Group are able to offer support and care on a wide range of issues, with 45,000 consultations completed in 2023.
Housing
 The Group provides decent housing to all workers and employees who require it. We are committed to provide housing with electricity and clean water, meeting national legislation and International Labor Organisation (ILO) standards. Houses have vegetable plots attached to them for which the Group freely provides seeds, advice and encouragement to grow fruits and vegetables for the households’ consumption. During 2023, the Group built 170 new housing units, and approximately 18,000 people live on the Group’s oil palm estates.
Schools and pre-schools
 We provide crèches to care for workers’ children and make sure that education is accessible, either by building and managing our own estate schools or by providing transportation to the nearest government school. The Group has developed both primary and secondary schools on its estates, and now has over 1,000 school places available. Transportation to and from the school is provided by the Group in dedicated school buses.
Sport and recreation
 The Group supports and encourages a wide range of sport and recreational activities at its estates. Infrastructure is in place to enable participation by both our workforce and the wider community.
Religious facilities
 Religion plays an important part in community life on Group estates, and this is supported by the Group through the provision of places of worship.
Co-operative stores
 Plantation co-operative stores are established that sell general provisions at a subsidised price to support food security.

All information is for year ended December 2023

Further information:

Indicator Disclosure
Free, prior, and informed consent (FPIC)
 The Group commits to provide potentially affected landowners and land users with sufficient information about any proposed Group activities to ensure that all individuals giving up rights to land do so only after they fully understand what is being given up, in return for financial compensation offered by the Group. We respect the rights of indigenous peoples, landowners, and land users to reject plans for development or conservation. Consent is sought through consultative and participative processes and any group or individual with landowner or land-user rights shall withhold or give consent to any project freely, without coercion, intimidation or manipulation, prior to the project’s commencement.
Participatory mapping and stakeholder consultation
 The Group has a department with permanent team members whose role is to lead an intensive programme of communication and participatory mapping.
Land tenure rights and land compensation
 The Group recognizes and respects all legal, communal, and customary rights to land ownership and the rights to use, manage and control land. The same commitment applies to our suppliers.

We seek to ensure both legal and customary rights are fully respected during discussion and agreement of land compensation. When acquiring new land for development, the Group negotiates compensation terms with local people in a fair and transparent manner. Transactions are meticulously recorded and witnessed, including by representatives of local government.
Employment and business opportunities
 The Group prioritises purchases from local contractors and will hire local people for plantation jobs whenever possible. Our plantations and mills are often the main source of employment and income for local communities.
Conflict prevention
 The Group has a department with permanent team members whose role is to lead an intensive programme of communication and participatory mapping with local stakeholders. We also work with the University of Indonesia to conduct comprehensive social surveys that objectively document information about the quality of life of people living in and around our estates. Results from these ongoing surveys allow the Group to focus its contributions towards the community according to the needs and aspirations of that community.
Conflict resolution
 We have a procedure in place to address cases of land conflict or disputes. Where appropriate, this involves consulting a third party to provide a neutral perspective. The Group always tries to resolve a dispute through negotiation. Where this proves unsuccessful, an attempt is next made to reach a resolution through mediation, then arbitration and lastly through adjudication, exhausting the possibilities at each level before moving to the next.

All information is for year ended December 2023

Summary of FPIC procedure

Process for FPIC

Summary of land conflict resolution procedure

Grievances process

Indicator Disclosure
Scheme smallholders
 The Group invites members of local communities to join scheme smallholder co-operatives and now more than 10,000 individuals are members of our smallholder schemes. Smallholder co-operative schemes are developed and operated by the Group to the same high standards applied to our own areas.
Independent smallholders
 The Group supports the improved livelihoods and inclusion in sustainable palm oil value chains of independent smallholders surrounding the Group’s own mills. We support them by inviting participation in mapping and then providing training on how to improve their yields and quality through good agricultural practices. We also provide training on health and safety and how to use protective equipment properly, as well as how to protect the environment and increase social awareness. A pilot project was initiated in Bangka to support RSPO certification of independent smallholders. With the experiences gained from this, the Group will move forward to its other estates. 547 independent smallholders were supported by the Group in 2023, representing approximately 13% of all independent smallholders in our supply chain.

All information is for year ended December 2023

Scheme smallholders
Units 2023 2022
Scheme smallholder land
 Ha 14,271 13,900
Percent of Group area 25 26
Scheme smallholders
 Number 11,388 10,229
Scheme smallholder cooperatives
 Number 33 27
Independent smallholders
Units 2023 2022
Independent smallholder ffb processed
 Percent 17 13
Tonnes 280,700 193,900
Independent smallholder ffb RSPO certified processed
 Tonnes 17,410 5,073
Independent smallholders engaged in support program
 Number 547 357

Further information:

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