Information Disclosure

Enterprises should ensure that timely and accurate information is disclosed on matters regarding their activities, structure, financial status and performance.

Enterprises should disclose not only non-financial information such as environmental assessments but also name and location of both the parent entity and the subsidiary enterprises, direct and indirect cross-ownership of shares between the parent entity.

Disclosure policies of enterprises should include material information on the financial and operating results of the enterprises; company objectives; major share ownership and voting rights; remuneration policy for members of board and key executives, and information about board members; foreseeable risk factors; issues regarding workers and other stakeholders.

Enterprises are encouraged to communicate additional information that could include statements of business conduct; information on internal audit, risk management and legal compliance systems; information on relationships with workers and other stakeholders.

Employment and Labour Relations

Enterprises should (within the framework of applicable law, regulations and prevailing labour relations and employment practices and applicable international labour standards) respect the rights of workers; negotiate employment conditions in an active manner; contribute to the abolition of child labour and forced or compulsory labour; not discriminate against their workers with respect to employment or occupation on such grounds as race, colour, sex, religion, political opinion or other status.

Enterprises should provide information to worker’s representatives which is needed for meaningful negotiations on employment conditions; promote consultation and co-operation between employers and workers and their representatives on matters of mutual concern; provide information to workers and their representatives which enables them to obtain a true and fair view of the performance of the entity or, where appropriate, the company as a whole.

Enterprises should observe standards of employment and labor relations not less favorable than those observed by comparable employers in the host country; take adequate steps to ensure occupational health and safety in their operations.

In their operations, to the greatest extent practicable, enterprises should employ local workers and provide training with a view to improving skill levels.

In considering changes in their operations which would have major employment effects, in particular in the case of the closure of an entity involving collective lay-offs or dismissals, enterprises should provide reasonable notice of such changes to workers in their employment and to the relevant governmental authorities and mitigate to the maximum extent practicable adverse effects.

In the context of bona fide negotiations with worker’s representatives on conditions of employment, or while workers are exercising a right to organize, enterprises should not threaten to transfer the whole or part of an operating unit from the country concerned nor transfer workers from the enterprises’ component entities in other countries in order to influence unfairly those negotiations or to hinder the exercise of a right to organize.

Environment

Enterprises should establish and maintain a system of environmental management appropriate to the enterprise, including collection and evaluation of adequate and timely information regarding the environmental, health, and safety impacts of their activities.

Enterprises should provide the communities and the public with information on the environment, health and safety impacts of the activities of the enterprise and provide adequate education and training to workers in environment health and safety matters, including the handling of hazardous materials and the prevention of environmental accidents.

Enterprises should assess and address in decision-making, the foreseeable environmental, health, and safety-related impacts associated with the processes, goods and services of the enterprise over their full life cycle. Enterprises should maintain contingency plans for preventing, mitigating, and controlling serious environmental and health damage from their operations; and mechanism for immediate reporting to the competent authorities.

Enterprises should continually seek to improve corporate environmental performance, at the level of the enterprise and, where appropriate, of its supply chain, by encouraging such activities as adoption of technologies and operating procedures in all parts of the enterprise; development and provision of products or services that have no undue environmental impacts.

The guidelines cover the areas of; Anti-corruption; Consumer Interest; Science and technology; Competition; Taxation.