Everyone at G4S, whether a director or frontline supervisor, has a responsibility to respect and protect the human rights of the company’s employees.
Statement from G4S Group CEO regarding migrant worker policies and practices
Any human rights abuse is completely unacceptable and will not be tolerated under any circumstances.
At G4S, we invest in substantial resources to ensure that our employment policies and practices are consistent with international conventions, including the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and the ILO core labour conventions. We recognise that migrant workers are far from home and potentially vulnerable and it is critical that we all follow the Group’s policies to safeguard their wellbeing.
It is essential that we proactively engage with employees, suppliers and other stakeholders to ensure that our migrant worker policies and practices remain relevant and effective. The Board and Executive are committed to the ongoing investment in our assurance programme to ensure that our migrant worker policies are implemented in all the businesses we manage and by the suppliers we use.
The announcement made by the Council on Ethics for the Norwegian Government Pension Fund Global (“Council”) on 14 November 2019 referred to a number of potential risks relating to migrant workers in parts of the Middle East. G4S takes these matters extremely seriously and has engaged with the Council closely and co-operatively. We are determined to fully address their concerns.
Since meeting with the Council in January 2019 we have taken significant steps to strengthen our migrant worker practices across all of our operations including updating our Migrant Workers Policy and Migrant Workers Recruitment Agency Code of Conduct, and appointing new Welfare Officers and a Migrant Worker Coordinator. Consistent with our Group values, we are resolutely committed to ensuring that our high standards are applied in all our business. To that end, we will continue to invest in proactive partner engagement, and robust assurance and audit processes and the Group executive team and the Board will continue to maintain close oversight of this important work.
G4S has, over many years, built a reputation as a leading employer of choice in the security industry. We are committed to working with employees, industry participants, suppliers and other stakeholders to develop and implement employment best practices in the security industry and maintain our leadership position.
Ashley Almanza
Group Chief Executive Officer
At G4S, we invest in substantial resources to ensure that our employment policies and practices are consistent with international conventions, including the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and the ILO core labour conventions. We recognise that migrant workers are far from home and potentially vulnerable and it is critical that we all follow the Group’s policies to safeguard their wellbeing.
It is essential that we proactively engage with employees, suppliers and other stakeholders to ensure that our migrant worker policies and practices remain relevant and effective. The Board and Executive are committed to the ongoing investment in our assurance programme to ensure that our migrant worker policies are implemented in all the businesses we manage and by the suppliers we use.
The announcement made by the Council on Ethics for the Norwegian Government Pension Fund Global (“Council”) on 14 November 2019 referred to a number of potential risks relating to migrant workers in parts of the Middle East. G4S takes these matters extremely seriously and has engaged with the Council closely and co-operatively. We are determined to fully address their concerns.
Since meeting with the Council in January 2019 we have taken significant steps to strengthen our migrant worker practices across all of our operations including updating our Migrant Workers Policy and Migrant Workers Recruitment Agency Code of Conduct, and appointing new Welfare Officers and a Migrant Worker Coordinator. Consistent with our Group values, we are resolutely committed to ensuring that our high standards are applied in all our business. To that end, we will continue to invest in proactive partner engagement, and robust assurance and audit processes and the Group executive team and the Board will continue to maintain close oversight of this important work.
G4S has, over many years, built a reputation as a leading employer of choice in the security industry. We are committed to working with employees, industry participants, suppliers and other stakeholders to develop and implement employment best practices in the security industry and maintain our leadership position.
Ashley Almanza
Group Chief Executive Officer
Background to the specific comments made by the Council in relation to the UAE and Qatar:
G4S UAEG4S provides all employees with clear terms and conditions prior to employment and carries out checks to verify that the terms promoted to candidates in the recruitment process align with those in the final place of work.
G4S does not withhold employee passports nor restrict the freedom of movement of employees, and does not charge employees any recruitment fees. Where independent suppliers charge recruitment, administrative and related fees, G4S requires these fees to be transparent and capped at reasonable levels.
G4S expects all suppliers to comply with our Code of Conduct, which includes undertakings to protect the human rights of employees. G4S undertakes assurance checks to verify that suppliers are operating in accordance with our Code of Conduct. Suppliers that fail to meet our standards must take appropriate remedial action in order to remain suppliers to the group.
G4S Qatar
As acknowledged by the Council, there have been important improvements in operating conditions in Qatar.
G4S Qatar is not owned or managed by the G4S group; it is owned by the Al-Attiyah Group of Trading Companies (AGTC), which operates under a contract put in place in 2010 that entitles AGTC to use the G4S brand in Qatar.
G4S proactively engages with AGTC, to promote labour practices which comply with the ILO core labour conventions. This has included substantial engagement in relation to the matters raised by the Council and we expect AGTC to operate in accordance with good practice.