VW presents human rights report: "Suspicious cases"
Since the Supply Chain Due Diligence Act came into force at the beginning of the year, the Volkswagen Group has not yet identified any human rights violations in its own operations. "There have been no human rights violations in our own business area since the law came into force," said the Group's Human Rights Officer, Kerstin Waltenberg, on Friday on the occasion of the presentation of her first annual report. In the entire supply chain - i.e. including all suppliers - "risks and specific suspected cases have been identified". There is still "potential for improvement" here.
The German Supply Chain Act came into force at the beginning of the year. Companies with more than 3,000 employees are obliged to take care to ensure that human rights are respected throughout production and must submit an annual report on this. "Our aim is to implement the law in the best possible way this year," said Waltenberg. Next year, the aim is to go beyond the minimum legal requirements.
According to VW, the controversial Urumqi plant in the Chinese province of Xinjiang is not covered by the law because it is not operated by VW itself, but by a joint venture with the Chinese manufacturer Saic. "Nevertheless, it is not the case that we are ignoring the plant because of this," emphasized Waltenberg. "We are looking there." Group CEO Oliver Blume announced in the summer that an independent audit would be carried out there by the end of the year. The site, which opened in 2013, has been criticized for possible human rights violations in the province.
Despite the lack of human rights violations in Volkswagen's own operations since the law's implementation, suspicious cases have been identified within the entire supply chain. As the controversial Urumqi plant is not directly operated by VW but a joint venture, the company is actively looking into potential human rights issues there.
Source: www.dpa.com
