Social Responsibility Report 2006
Living by our Principles
Employee conditions and community relations in TNT’s China operations
Living consistently by the TNT Business Principles remains an important part of our culture. It requires concerted effort, particularly as our growth ambitions continue to take us to non-OECD countries such as Brazil, China, India and Russia. Globally, we want to comply with the standards of various regulatory agencies such as the UN, the ILO and the World Bank. In this report we focus on China.
TNT has had operations on the Chinese mainland since 1988. Even after this length of time, discussions on the possible risks of doing business there never fail to arise during talks with stakeholders, after presenting our results and through our requests for feedback. Another issue is the current globalisation debate regarding the transfer of production from Europe to China and India. Our standard response is that, like all our operations in non-OECD1 countries, our China operations are SA 80002 certified, thereby ensuring fair employment conditions for all our staff. We have recently looked in depth at the state of affairs: an overview of the results.
Responsible growth
TNT has major growth ambitions in China. We are looking to achieve an annual growth of 30% per year over the coming 5 years (2006-2010). As in all our operations, it is critical that both our stakeholders and our employees benefit from what we do. While the former is clearly linked to overall company performance, the latter is guaranteed by providing fair wages and treatment for the work that our employees perform, pleasant and safe working conditions, and through opportunities for growth within the company. Of course, the two are also dependent on one another.
Our first task was to find a reliable external partner to help us form an objective view of the current situation. An experienced and respected organisation in this area is the Danish Institute for Human Rights. Their Dutch counterpart provided us with a generic assessment tool, known as the HRCA. This contains a total of 230 questions addressing all possible areas of employee welfare and safety. Defining the areas relevant to us, we developed a specific questionnaire based on the HRCA to assess our operations. We call this the Quick Check.
TNT Express currently has 51 International Express depots in China, serving both the coastal cities and the vast hinterland. These depots range greatly in size, from some 250 employees in Shanghai with an annual throughput of 750,000 shipments to small depots with far smaller volumes. After analysing the characteristics of each, five were chosen as representing a fair cross-section of our presence, taking local environments and regulatory environments into account. Following translation, we sent questionnaires for the assessment to all five depots.
‘We have set eight priorities for immediate attention in two main areas: Workplace Health and Safety, and Conditions of Employment and Work.’
Two-stage assessment
Each of the site employee representatives were randomly selected by TNT China and the site management prior to the two-stage assessment. In stage 1, employee representatives were given questionnaires for their review and independent assessment. In stage 2, all completed questionnaires were collated by our China Head Office, followed by data analysis by an external auditor, QMI. For a copy of the questions, please go to http://group.tnt.com/socialresponsibility/reportsandrankings/socialresponsibilityreporting/index.asp.
In total, 223 staff from 12 departments were involved. They included a broad range of functions within the organisations - from line management to drivers and packers. All employees were personally invited to take part, resulting in 100% participation. Workshops were organised for the five depots involved for further review of the results and site interviews were conducted on a group basis, with each site interview team consisting of representatives from TNT China and the external organisation.
The results of the assessment were highly satisfactory, with no major areas of concern. We have set eight priorities for immediate attention in two main areas: Workplace Health and Safety, and Conditions of Employment and Work. Priorities include:
- Improving the maintenance of all electricity connection points, wiring and vehicles in operational areas.
- The need to cascade TNT Group or TNT China disciplinary policies for violating workplace H&S.
- Ensuring staff work within the 40 hours per week and 36 hours overtime per month limits.
- Implementing a social responsibility policy to guide staff in dealing with troublesome customers.
In addition to providing a neutral and professional assessment of the conditions within TNT in China, the HRCA Quick Check was also a pre-assessment for the SA 8000 certification. TNT Express China successfully achieved accreditation to SA 8000 limits in November 2006.