Human rights is embedded in our compliance program
Yara has made a commitment to respecting internationally recognized human and labor rights throughout our own operations, as well as in our supply chain. Respecting human rights is fundamental to sound risk management and Yara’s value creation. We value our good relations with employees and their organizations and engage with them frequently.
We support the United Nations Global Compact, the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises, the International Bill of Human Rights, and the core conventions of the International Labor Organization (ILO). In addition, we perform human rights due diligence in our supply chain in compliance with the Norwegian Transparency Act (Åpenhetsloven).
Read our policy on human rights set out in our Code of Conduct
Read our Modern Slavery Transparency Statement 2022 (pdf, 0.9 MB)
Commitments
Human rights management, own operations:
By 2025, conduct Human Rights Impact Assessments (HRIAs) and address findings in all countries where we consider that our operations have the highest impact on human rights, focusing on China, Tanzania, Zambia, and South Africa in 2022. On track
Human rights management, supply chain:
Respect the rights of people in the supply chain by continuing our human rights due diligence activities, including audits and training, directed at high-risk business partners. On track
Living wage:
Establish living wage benchmarks and conduct gap analyses for all our countries of operation by 2023, and close living wage gap in all our countries of operation by 2025. On track
Norwegian Transparency Act
Read Yara's statement according to the Norwegian Transparency Act and contact us for any information requests
Human rights due diligence in the supply chain
In 2022, we established our Sustainable Procurement Policy, which is communicated to all suppliers. A key initiative for putting the policy into practice is the Supplier Compliance Management Process, which has been finalized and will be implemented in 2023. These are specific measures to monitor compliance with the Code of Conduct for Yara’s Business Partners, advance our human rights due diligence efforts, and raise the sustainability performance of our suppliers. Our human rights due diligence follows UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and the OECD Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Business Conduct. We use the Integrity Due Diligence (IDD) process along with our Sustainable Procurement Policy and Supplier Compliance Management Process (under implementation) to identify our human rights risk exposure and manage compliance in the supply chain.
Human rights impact assessments
Conducting targeted human rights impact assessments (HRIAs) is an integral part of meeting our due diligence obligations. Each HRIA we have conducted to date has proven highly valuable in identifying human rights impacts from Yara’s operations, and in evaluating how our human rights policies are implemented on the ground. Findings have been presented to the Group Executive Board and the Board of Directors, and mitigating actions remain a local management responsibility. The Ethics and Compliance Department monitors implementation and reports on progress. Our human rights and geopolitical risk assessments rank our countries of operation, as well as countries from which we source raw materials, in terms of human rights risk exposure. The 2022 country human rights risk assessment identified 17 high-risk countries, down from 19 in 2021. This guides our focus on where to conduct targeted human rights impact assessments (HRIA). In addition, HRIA findings have helped form our understanding of what Yara’s main risks to people’s human rights are, as presented in our Code of Conduct. We recognize that this landscape may change, and that we need to continuously monitor the potential impacts from our operations and in the supply chain.
Identified risks
Yara’s use of contracted labor is a core driver of salient human rights risks for workers at Yara’s sites, as well as in our supply chain, covering, for instance, third-party-run warehouses and logistics providers. Yara’s ability to secure individual workers’ labor rights, including fair wages, working hours, benefits, annual leave, work predictability, and a safe and healthy workplace free from discrimination is reduced when using contracted labor. Performing heavy manual labor is an additional health and safety risk when combined with high temperatures and humidity.
See Yara's Sustainability Report 2022 for the full statement on the Norwegian Transparency Act (Åpenhetsloven).
Business partner code of conduct
One of Yara’s goals is to develop relationships with business partners that share similar corporate values as Yara and conduct their business in an ethical and compliant manner. The Code of conduct for Yara’s business partners (BPCoC) is the Yara policy that outlines the legal obligations and the integrity standards Yara expects its business partners to uphold. The BPCoC considers the same internationally recognized and endorsed standards for human rights, business ethics, and labor conditions as our Code of conduct.
Integrity Due Diligence
Integrity Due Diligence (IDD) is the procedure for ensuring and monitoring the integrity of potential, new, and existing business partners. Yara had more than 30,000 active suppliers in 2022. Approximately 20% of the suppliers had completed the Integrity Due Diligence (IDD) self-assessment questionnaire. The purpose of the IDD process is not to reject business partners, but to identify integrity risks and to mitigate these to safeguard Yara’s interests. If adverse responses are identified in the IDD self-assessment questionnaire, we initiate a dialogue with the supplier, and are committed to influencing them to uphold the same integrity standards as at Yara. Fewer than 1% of our business partners are rejected annually.
As part of the IDD Procedure, we continuously monitor compliance in our supply chain by screening suppliers against sanctions, watchlists, and compliance databases. On a risk-basis, certain suppliers are selected for additional follow-up, including in-depth due diligence work, training and other communication efforts.
Sustainable procurement
The policy describes how we want to cooperate with our suppliers to create transparency in our suppliers’ business sustainability performance and how to improve their performance, and with that our own performance, where required. This policy guides our global Procurement organization and the implementation of a sustainable procurement program at Yara.
Supplier compliance
The objective of the Supplier compliance management process is to describe what the minimum requirements for supplier pre-qualification, qualification, and supplier compliance monitoring are, including supplier auditing, following a risk-based approach. This is a global process that allows cross-functional Procurement teams to cover increasing internal and external due diligence and reporting requirements, such as the Norwegian Transparency Act (Åpenhetsloven).
Supplier audits
We conduct supplier audits and assessments in sectors in which we have identified risks through, for example, our Integrity Due Diligence process, human rights impact assessments, reports of severe accidents, or previous audit findings. In 2021, we ran a risk-based audit program related to road transport. Risk-based audits include performance evaluation of the carriers prior to audit.
A total of 21 audits were conducted across Europe. These audits cover health and safety performance, environmental policies, human rights, and operational issues. Non-conformities and observations are recorded and followed up with the companies.
Supplier GTC
Yara seeks to enter into fair and balanced agreements with all suppliers, based on consistent legal terms, and therefore it is our company policy that all supplier agreements should be based on our GTC of Purchase.
Please note that Yara may use country specific versions of this GTC of Purchase in certain jurisdictions to accommodate for mandatory law.
