Sustainability Statement Sustainability Statement Stepping Up on Our Human Rights and Labour Practices At QL, efforts to intensify awareness and compliance with human rights and forced labour indicators have been made possible with all business units completing the site self-assessment. HR personnel of all business units have used the established internal HR social compliance and audit checklist which was made available for all sites. Focus areas covered in the self-assessment were aligned with QL’s stance on human rights and labour standards. A copy of QL’s Human Rights and Labour Standards Policy can be found on the company’s website. On top of the self-assessment conducted by each business unit, an internal HR team at group level has been deployed to conduct human rights due diligence audits at selected sites. This year, three sites have undergone the Group HR audit, namely QL Figo (Johor) Sdn. Bhd., QL Breeder Farm Sdn. Bhd. and QL Farms Sdn. Bhd. Over the next four years, plans to initiate more of these internal audits will be carried out. The aim of this audit is to ensure that the management of all business units is well versed and committed to comply with the respective human rights and labour practices standards in accordance with the applicable legal requirements. The human rights due diligence audits have yielded numerous benefits to the business units. Observations made during the audits followed by findings and recommendations were communicated to respective sites for further actions. Some key actions that have been highlighted are improvement in the areas of documentation, communications, engagement, work scheduling and work arrangements. Monitoring and Continuous Improvement of Our Labour Practices Staying true to QL’s commitment to comply with relevant legal requirements, a total of 60% of our HR professionals across various business units participated in the Employment Act 1955 & Amendments Training in the first quarter of FY2023. This training has enabled all our business sites operating in Peninsular Malaysia to comply with immediate effect when the Employment (Amendment) Act 2022 (“the Amendment Act”) and the Employment (Amendment of First Schedule) Order 2022 (“Amendment Order”) came into force on 1 January 2023. Responsible Recruitment of Migrant Workers QL’s recruitment and treatment guidelines for migrant workers continue to be the key emphasis that guides our behaviours and actions when recruiting and managing our migrant workers. We remain committed to “zero recruitment fees” whereby migrant workers are not subjected to pay any fees in conjunction with their recruitment, hiring, migration and employment. We strive to ensure that all employment related costs are borne by the company and no illegal money is being collected prior to employment. QL’s terms of engagement with recruitment agents specifically emphasised on the importance of this commitment. Further, we also conduct pre departure and on arrival self-declaration checks. In ensuring that QL is a responsible employer, upon the arrival of migrant workers, our HR teams provided onboarding briefings to ensure that our migrant employees’ basic needs and necessities in the form of housing, transportation, medical treatment facilities, uniforms, transportation, etc. are well taken care of. We also ensure all our migrant workers are paid in accordance to the Malaysian Minimum Wages Order 2022 (“the Order”). BIOSECURITY FAIR LABOUR PRACTICES Performance • 52 biosecurity audits in 20 farms • 2.1% increase in biosecurity audit average score from previous year Performance • Internal Human Rights Due Diligence Audits completed for 3 business units • Fully compliance with the Employment (Amendment) Act 2022 (“the Amendment Act”) for all business units in Peninsular Malaysia • Upholding of “Zero Recruitment Fee” in hiring of all our migrant workers Our Approach Biosecurity is imperative in QL farms for maintaining the health and well-being of poultry and preventing the spread of diseases. Emphasising prevention over cure, we continued the good farm management practices through the support from QL Poultry Centre of Excellence, a team consisting of qualified and experienced personnel such as veterinarians, microbiologists, and nutritionists. Our Approach QL is cognisant of being recognised as a fair employer in a competitive marketplace, whereby we acknowledge our tremendous employers’ responsibility in upholding and maintaining fair labour practices in all our business operations. We remain steadfast in complying with all applicable legal requirements pertaining to human rights and fair labour practices. We strive to uphold the rights of our employees in accordance with the Universal Declaration on Human Rights and the International Labour’s Organisation’s Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights of Work. Enhanced Biosecurity Measures In FY2023, our biosecurity measures were enhanced through the implementation of the following initiatives: 1) Implementation of quality assurance programme Farm quality assurance programme was rolled out to all layer farms in FY2023. The programme covered stringent control measures, strict procedures, and quality assurance management system. 2) Introduction of digitalised audit monitoring system Periodic biosecurity audits are conducted at QL farms to assess and evaluate the effectiveness of our control measures and identify areas for improvement. Digitalised audit monitoring system was launched in two pilot farms, namely QL Poultry Farms Sdn. Bhd. and QL Eco Farm Sdn. Bhd. The digitalised system is aimed to streamline audit workflows and reduce human errors to help QL maintain compliance with great accuracy and efficiency. 3) Development of poultry academy framework QL recognises that a thorough understanding of farm biosecurity and the associated risks is essential to improving the knowledge of our employees and strengthening our poultry production. Poultry academy framework was developed to include skills development training programme to drive employees to high level of competence in the poultry industry. All QL farms are certified with myGAP by the Department of Veterinary Services and there were no major disease outbreaks in our farms in FY2023. Welcoming on board our newly recruited migrant workers at KLIA Airport QL RESOURCES BERHAD INTEGRATED ANNUAL REPORT 2023 SEC. SUSTA I N A B I L I TY STATEMENT 5 049 048 PG. PG.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NTkwNzg=