Our approach and key human rights focus areas

Global Human Rights Policy

Our commitment to respect human rights

We are led by a strong purpose; Creating for happier, healthier lives with love for nature. Let’s imagine together. As we strive to be a force for good in the world, we must take responsibility for our actions and act with empathy and humility wherever we are present. We care about the impact of our decisions, large and small, on those around us. This includes impacts on human rights and preventing harm to any person(s) associated with our business. Givaudan has made an explicit commitment to respect human rights, including labour rights, as outlined in our Group-wide Principles of Conduct¹. This Human Rights Policy responds to the needs of both our stakeholders and our own business to further elaborate on this commitment. Ultimately, respect for human rights is an essential guide to the right way of doing business and to living our purpose. A commitment to high ethical standards, as well as transparency and honesty in our dealings with employees, customers, suppliers and the communities where we operate, enables us to be a responsible corporate citizen. This policy applies to Givaudan’s direct operations, the entities we own and the facilities we manage. We expect and support our suppliers to commit to respecting the same human rights, including labour rights that we commit to respect. This is outlined in our dedicated Responsible Sourcing Policy² that is aligned to this policy. We recognise our responsibility to respect human rights and fully endorse and support the UN Guiding Principles for Business and Human Rights, the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises of June 2011 and the Tripartite Declaration of Principles concerning Multinational Enterprises and Social Policy of March 2017. We commit to respect human rights, to act with due diligence to avoid causing or contributing to human rights abuses through our own activities, and to prevent and address human rights abuses that are linked to our operations, products or services around the world. When referring to human rights, we refer to the rights expressed in the International Bill of Human Rights (including of Universal Declaration of Human Rights) and the International Labour Organization’s Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work. Where our own principles and practices are stricter than applicable legislation and in alignment with applicable human rights frameworks, we apply our internal higher standards. Our effort towards upholding, and where applicable promoting, human rights is ultimately grounded in, and helps us to live up to, our commitments under the United Nations Global Compact’s Ten Principles and the WBCSD’s CEO Guide to Human Rights, to which we are signatories. It also forms part of our contribution to realise the Sustainable Development Goals, especially Goals 2, 3, 5, 6, 8 and 17.

Key human rights focus areas

Within the scope of our overarching human rights commitment as outlined above, the following focus areas, amongst others, are most salient for Givaudan. These have been identified as part of our regular ongoing engagement with stakeholders, both internal and external. 

Right to decent work and occupational health and safety: We align to the Ethical Trade Initiative’s (ETI) Base Code principles³ and respect and adhere to all of its standards including regarding working conditions, occupational health and safety, working hours, wages and rest time. We pay living wages in line with acceptable local legal standards and ETI Base Code, and carry out regular wage benchmarking exercises in geographies where we operate. We do not demand working hours from our employees beyond acceptable legal and industry standards. Any overtime work, within acceptable limits, is purely voluntary and specifically compensated. We provide proper access to regular breaks for rest along with sufficient water and sanitation facilities. We strive to manage risks associated with working in industrial environments and with hazardous chemicals⁴. Our goal at Givaudan is to eliminate accidents and get ‘Everyone Home Safe, Everyday’. We recognise that mental health is an important element of the overall health and wellbeing of an individual and we place particular emphasis on this aspect as part of our health and safety efforts.

Consumer health and safety: Respecting our consumers’ human rights is an essential part of our efforts, especially in relation to the safety of our products and the potential impact on our consumers’ right to health. We commit to ensure that our products are safe for the intended consumer use, and comply with all applicable laws and regulations. As a key player in the fragrance and flavour industry we are also in a position to positively influence the wellbeing of consumers and aim to develop products that promote wellbeing aspect aligned to our purpose. Equality and non discrimination At Givaudan, we embrace equality throughout our organisation and are fully committed to respect the principle of equality by creating a balanced, diverse and inclusive workforce and environment. We believe equality and diversity drives innovation and creates closer connections with our employees, customers and partners. In particular, we focus on equal treatment of women and men, and believe that women’s empowerment is essential to uphold human rights, achieve equitable economic growth and promote social development in society. We are fully committed to have equal pay for work of equal value. Going beyond our direct operations, we also explore and engage with our supply chain to promote equal opportunities and women’s empowerment, through our various company programmes. We fully commit to respect the right to be free from any form of discrimination and to ensuring equal opportunities for success to people from all backgrounds and genders. We recruit, employ and promote employees on the sole basis of the qualifications and abilities needed for the work to be performed, without regard to race, colour, age, gender, national origin, religion, sexual orientation or any other category not relevant to performance, and we expect our suppliers to do the same.

Freedom of association and collective bargaining: We respect every individual’ right to freedom of association and collective bargaining. We aim to cultivate an environment where the employer and the employee can better understand each other’s challenges and find ways of resolving them, especially given that our global workforce operates in an international market and must be capable of adapting to rapid change. This is done by establishing genuine dialogue with freely chosen employee representatives.

No child labour: We do not practice or tolerate any form of child exploitation, and we do not provide employment to children before they have completed their compulsory education and in any event not before they reach the age of 15. This applies to employment within Givaudan, and we expect the same from our partners and suppliers with whom we work. Where we observe young workers engaged in business activities, but not legally qualifying as child labour, we still work towards training and educating stakeholders towards ensuring young workers are always protected and their right to education is not infringed.

No forced labour, compulsory labour or human trafficking: All forms of forced and compulsory labour are against our principles. We do not practice or tolerate any form of exploitation or forced or compulsory labour including prison labour, indentured labour, bonded labour, slave labour or any form of human trafficking, and we expect our suppliers to follow the same.

Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) and land rights: We believe that land represents a source of identity and culture, and a very valuable economic asset. We respect the rights and title to property and land of any individual or group, including Indigenous people or local communities, along with cultural rights, the right to self-determination and the right to non-discrimination in this context. We therefore do not practice any form of land grabbing, water, forest or mineral grabbing, which to us represents a systemic violation of human rights. In any negotiation with regard to property or land of such individuals or groups including the use of and transfers of it, we adhere to the principles of free, prior and informed consent (FPIC), contract transparency and disclosure.

Rights of communities where we operate: We respect the human rights of people in communities impacted by our activities and recognise that vulnerable and marginalised groups deserve particular attention. We seek to identify adverse human rights impacts and to take appropriate steps to avoid, minimise and/or mitigate them. We regularly and systematically engage with our communities in stakeholder dialogue including to better understand their needs. Through our community engagement and various company programmes⁵, we further strive to make a positive impact on the human rights of those living in the communities where we operate.

Our implementation journey

Due diligence and stakeholder engagement: To put this policy into practice, we work to continuously identify human rights impacts, avoid and address them, continuously monitor the effectiveness of our measures and periodically report on our performance. We realise that we are on a journey of continuous improvement. The environment we are operating in is constantly changing and as such we need to regularly review the way we respond. We also recognise that human rights are not a matter that we can address alone. We need to work with governments, non-governmental organisations, our employees, suppliers, customers, communities and all other relevant stakeholders. Our Responsible Sourcing Policy already strives to ensure that our suppliers adhere to the same principles as those contained in this policy. We are implementing a Group-wide human rights programme, which will also include human rights assessments and measures to identify and engage with vulnerable or marginalised groups as part of the stakeholder dialogue.

Remediation for policy violation: We have zero tolerance for any form of human rights abuse and follow strict governance, grievance and remediation mechanisms to ensure compliance on our principles and commitments. We provide various mechanisms for raising concerns. Employees can raise concerns regarding this policy in confidence with a Local Compliance Officer, the Corporate Compliance Officer or the Legal Department or through our internal Compliance Helpline. Third parties can raise issues in confidence to the Head of Group Ethics and Compliance by email to: global.compliance@givaudan.com. All issues will be handled in a confidential manner, consistent with Givaudan’s need to investigate, in compliance with legal requirements, and in cooperation with law enforcement authorities, where required. Givaudan does not tolerate any form of retaliation against anyone who seeks advice or reports misconduct in good faith.

Governance: Responsibility for implementing our commitment to each respective human rights focus area is managed by internal management roles. Overall accountability for ensuring we uphold our human rights commitments lies with the Chief Executive Officer, supported by our Executive Committee. This broad governance structure for human rights management ensures every part of the business understands their responsibility and upholds their contribution towards respecting human rights.

1. Our Principles of Conduct: www.givaudan.com/our-company/responsible-business/code-of-conduct

2. Our Responsible Sourcing Policy: www.givaudan.com/files/giv-responsible-sourcing-policy.pdf

3. Our Social Responsibility Position Statement: www.givaudan.com/files/giv-ps-social-responsibility.pdf

4. Our Environment, Health and Safety Position Statement: www.givaudan.com/files/giv-ps-environment-health-safety.pdf

5. Our Community Efforts: www.givaudan-foundation.org/