Supporting Human Rights
At PostNL, we are committed to upholding internationally recognised human rights across the company. We view human rights as a vital social and governance topic, and respect ILO’s Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work and particularly endorse the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. PostNL has been a signatory to the UN Global Compact since 2012. In recent years, the scope of our focus has broadened from to the impact we have along our entire value chain and work with our partners to tackle a broad range of topics. Therefore, we have tailored our ESG agenda to the most material topics as defined by our stakeholder engagement process and materiality assessment. We have linked these to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), specifically the SDG sub-targets, which helps us focus on those areas where we can make a material impact.
In 2022 we developed and implemented a more structured, company-wide approach towards human rights due diligence and management. This structure consists of a six-step approach, which is outlined in the human rights infographic on this page and included in the Human Rights Due Diligence report. These steps outline how we apply our Human Rights Policy commitment, from identifying and assessing any adverse impacts that may occur across our business or along our supply chain, to taking action to cease, prevent or mitigate these impacts, and communicating how we have addressed these impacts.
Human Rights management approach
In 2023, we continued implementing mitigating and remediating actions across the four identified human rights risk areas, which are working conditions, diversity and inclusion, privacy protection and data security, and fair compensation. For example, we developed a delivery partner due diligence policy addressing these risk areas.
These areas relate to the material topics human rights and labour practices, employee attraction, development and retention, and data security and protection, identified during the double materiality assessment conducted in 2022 and integrated in our Risk & Opportunity management approach. For more information on our assessment and mitigation response, refer to Main Risks and Opportunities. Our approach and the actions we have taken are disclosed in the relevant sections of this report and referenced in the GRI content index.
In relation to the development of KPIs and targets, we decided to first further align our approach with the requirements of the ESRS for the CSRD at a more detailed level than initial conducted in 2022. This helped strengthen our human rights risk assessment approach, develop more specific insights into human rights-related impacts across our value chain, and refine material subtopics. As we finalise our assessment in 2024, we plan to align relevant metrics and targets on specific human rights impacts, risks and opportunities with the predefined topics in the ESRS to allow for transparency and comparability for stakeholders. Where relevant, these metrics and targets may also relate to human rights topics in PostNL’s value chain.
PostNL Coverage of Human Rights areas in policies
| Elements of PostNL Group Human Rights Policy | Subject covered | Reference to UDHR1 |
|---|---|---|
| Collective labour agreements | Stimulate trade union and works council participation; working conditions; equal opportunities; remuneration; working hours and rest | Art. 20; Art. 23.1; Art. 23.2; Art. 23.3; Art. 24 |
| Business principles | Slavery; diversity; discrimination and (sexual) harassment | Art. 4; Art. 18 |
| PostNL Procurement policy | Freedom of association, working conditions; equal opportunities; remuneration; working hours and rest | Art. 20; Art. 23.1; Art. 23.2; Art. 23.3; Art. 24 |
| Diversity & Inclusion Policy | Freedom of thought, conscience and religion; equal opportunities | Art. 18; Art. 23.2 |
| PostNL pride network | Stimulate LGBT acceptance | Art. 18 |
| Woman Inclusion Network | Support women in equal opportunities | Art. 18 |
| ISO 45001 certification | Working conditions | Art. 23.1 |
| Complaints and support processes | Freedom of opinion and expression | Art. 19 |
- Universal Declaration of Human Rights