Objective
1.
The objective of this Standard is to specify disclosure requirements which will enable users of the sustainability statement to understand the undertaking’s material impacts on its own workforce , as well as related material risks and opportunities , including:
- how the undertaking affects its own workforce, in terms of material positive and negative actual or potential impacts;
- any actions taken, and the result of such actions, to prevent, mitigate or remediate actual or potential negative impacts, and to address risks and opportunities;
- the nature, type and extent of the undertaking’s material risks and opportunities related to its impacts and dependencies on its own workforce, and how the undertaking manages them; and
- the financial effects on the undertaking over the short-, medium- and long-term of material risks and opportunities arising from the undertaking’s impacts and dependencies on its own workforce.
2.
In order to meet the objective, this Standard also requires an explanation of the general approach the undertaking takes to identify and manage any material actual and potential impacts on its own workforce in relation to the following social, including human rights, factors or matters:
- working conditions, including:
- secure employment;
- working time;
- adequate wages ;
- social dialogue ;
- freedom of association, the existence of works councils and the information, consultation and participation rights of workers;
- collective bargaining , including the rate of the undertaking’s workforce covered by collective agreements;
- work-life balance; and
- health and safety.
- equal treatment and opportunities for all, including:
- gender equality and equal pay for work of equal value;
- training and skills development;
- employment and inclusion of persons with disabilities ;
- measures against violence and harassment in the workplace; and
- diversity.
- other work-related rights, including those that relate to:
- child labour;
- forced labour ;
- adequate housing; and
- privacy.
3.
This Standard also requires an explanation of how such impacts , as well as the undertaking’s dependencies on its own workforce , can create material risks or opportunities for the undertaking. For example, on the matter of equal opportunities, discrimination in hiring and promotion against women can reduce the undertaking’s access to qualified labour and harm its reputation. Conversely, policies to increase the representation of women in the workforce and in upper levels of management can have positive effects, such as increasing the pool of qualified labour and improving the undertaking’s reputation.
4.
This Standard covers an undertaking’s own workforce , which is understood to include both people who are in an employment relationship with the undertaking (“ employees ”) and non-employees who are either people with contracts with the undertaking to supply labour (“self-employed people”) or people provided by undertakings primarily engaged in “employment activities” (NACE Code N78). See Application Requirement 3 for examples of who falls under own workforce. The information required to be disclosed with regard to non-employees shall not affect their status pursuant to applicable labour law.
5.
This Standard does not cover workers in the undertaking’s upstream or downstream value chain ; these categories of workers are covered in ESRS S2 Workers in the value chain.
6.
The Standard requires undertakings to describe their own workforce , including key characteristics of the employees and non-employees that are part of it. This description provides users with an understanding of the structure of the undertaking’s own workforce and helps to contextualise information provided through other disclosures.
7.
The objective of the Standard is also to enable users to understand the extent to which the undertaking aligns or complies with international and European human rights instruments and conventions, including the International Bill of Human Rights, the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises, the International Labour Organization’s Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work and ILO fundamental conventions, the UN Convention on Persons with Disabilities, the European Convention of Human Rights, the revised European Social Charter, the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, the EU policy priorities as set out by the European Pillar of Social Rights, and Union legislation, including the EU labour law acquis.