What are the material issues the company has identified?

In its 2016 Corporate Social Responsibility Report Ardentec identified a range of material issues, such as integrity management, business performance and profitability, customer service and satisfaction, risk management, respect for human rights. Among these, promoting workplace health and safety stands out as a key material issue for Ardentec.

Stakeholder engagement in accordance with the GRI Standards

The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) defines the Principle of Stakeholder Inclusiveness when identifying material issues (or a company’s most important impacts) as follows:

“The organization should identify its stakeholders, and explain how it has responded to their reasonable expectations.”

Stakeholders must be consulted in the process s of identifying a company’s most important impacts and their reasonable expectations and interests must be taken into account. This is an important cornerstone for CSR / sustainability reporting done responsibly.

Key stakeholder groups Ardentec engages with:

Stakeholder Group	Method of engagement
Employees	·         Labor-management meetings ·         Safety window meetings ·         Occupational safety and health committee meetings ·         Intranet e-platform ·         Suggestion (on-line or box)/telephone/Email ·         Announcements ·         Department meetings
Customers	·         Meeting/audit ·         Customer satisfaction management or survey ·         Customer visit ·         Company website
Suppliers and contractors	·         Contractor training ·         Supplier CSR and Business Ethics Guidelines ·         Protocol meeting ·         Supplier/contractor audit ·         Meetings or communications
Government and regulatory agencies	·         Regulation seminars or public hearings ·         Financial statements ·         Reports or responses on demand ·         Official correspondences ·         Industrial development conference ·         Report and reply of each business
Investors	·         Shareholder meetings ·         Investor meeting ·         Financial statement or annual report ·         Market Observation Post System ·         Company website ·         Meetings or communications
Cooperation institutions	·         Audit ·         Meetings or communications ·         Enterprise-academy collaboration program
Creditors	·         Relevant information providing or reply as required ·         Meetings or communications ·         Financial statements
Community	·         Company website, e-mail ·         Social welfare activities

How stakeholder engagement was made to identify material issues

To identify and prioritize material issues Ardentec carried out a questionnaire survey among stakeholders.

What actions were taken by Ardentec to promote workplace health and safety?

In its 2016 Corporate Social Responsibility Report Ardentec reports that it took the following actions for promoting workplace health and safety:

• Improving safety and health performance through the OSH Committee
• Ardentec’s OSH (Occupational Safety and Health) Committee reviews workplace safety and health programs/plans and how effectively they are implemented. In addition, committee meetings enable all employee representatives to freely express their opinions about safety and health.

• Promoting occupational health and safety through the Healthy Workplace Program
• Ardentec’s Healthy Workplace Program includes:
  • health checks provided every two years
  • medical counseling: occupational illness specialists help prevent, consult on, and treat general and occupational illnesses and injuries
  • health care for high-risk employees
  • emergency aid: employees who fall ill or are injured while working receive immediate medical attention by health professionals
  • pandemic disease control: Ardentec has established epidemic prevention mechanisms preventing the spread of contagious diseases and viral infections
  • care for female employees: among others, Ardentec arranges regular annual female three-in-one cancer screenings and provides a specific color of working clothes for pregnant employees who work in the factories, to keep others aware
  • annual refresher first aid training
  • health promotion: Ardentec organizes various health promotion activities, including stress and weight loss management

• Providing safety and health education and training
• Ardentec provides safety and health education and training to all new and existing employees and also requires employees to complete applicable safety and health training, depending on the nature of their jobs. Additionally, when handling chemicals, employees have to complete a series of training programs regarding hazard awareness, characteristics of chemical substances, measures to prevent exposure and emergency response.

Which GRI indicators/Standards have been addressed?

The GRI indicators/Standards addressed in this case are:

1) G4-LA5: Percentage of total workforce represented in formal joint management–worker health and safety committees that help monitor and advise on occupational health and safety programs – the updated GRI Standard is: Disclosure 403-1 Workers representation in formal joint management–worker health and safety committees

2) G4-LA6: Type of injury and rates of injury, occupational diseases, lost days, and absenteeism, and total number of work-related fatalities, by region and by gender – the updated GRI Standard is: Disclosure 403-2 Types of injury and rates of injury, occupational diseases, lost days, and absenteeism, and number of work-related fatalities

3) G4-LA7: Workers with high incidence or high risk of diseases related to their occupation – the updated GRI Standard is: Disclosure 403-3 Workers with high incidence or high risk of diseases related to their occupation

4) G4-LA8: Health and safety topics covered in formal agreements with trade unions – the updated GRI Standard is: Disclosure 403-4 Health and safety topics covered in formal agreements with trade unions

 

78% of the world’s 250 largest companies report in accordance with the GRI Standards

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References:

1) This case study is based on published information by Ardentec, located at the link below. For the sake of readability, we did not use brackets or ellipses. However, we made sure that the extra or missing words did not change the report’s meaning. If you would like to quote these written sources from the original, please revert to the original on the Global Reporting Initiative’s Sustainability Disclosure Database at the link:

http://database.globalreporting.org/

2) http://www.fbrh.co.uk/en/global-reporting-initiative-gri-g4-guidelines-download-page

3) https://g4.globalreporting.org/Pages/default.aspx

4) https://www.globalreporting.org/standards/gri-standards-download-center/

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