Diversity and Inclusion
We recognise our shared responsibility in fostering a more equal and inclusive society. We believe that a diversified workforce will bring forth creativity, innovation and more enriching perspectives to the workplace. As outlined in our Equal Opportunity Policy, all employees have the right to equal opportunity and treatment, regardless of ethnic origin, gender, national origin, age, social class, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, union membership, political affiliation, or disability.
As stated in our Supplier Guidelines, we also expect and encourage our suppliers to cultivate an inclusive work environment that respects and protect human rights and personal security, free from any form of discrimination, harassment, intimidation, or abuse of any kind. We also encourage our suppliers to provide equal access and empower women in their workforce.
This is communicated in our Women’s Charter, Human Rights Policy, Human Rights Framework, No Exploitation Protocol, and Sexual Harassment, Violence and Abuse, and Reproductive Rights Policy, which are applicable to both our operations and suppliers.
We are committed to ensuring female representation in all levels of our workforce – from our plantations, factories, and corporate offices to junior and senior management. Wilmar launched our Women’s Charter in 2019, and it sets out core areas to ensure a fairer and more inclusive workplace for women in Wilmar. The charter explicitly recognizes that women have roles outside of work that often impacts their decisions at work, and that issues to do with female health, family wellbeing, and other external challenges are very much linked to how women organize around work and can have a disproportionate effect on their work life.
In April 2019, a Women's Committee Steering Group (WCSG), headed by Wilmar's General Manager - Group Sustainability, was established to ensure WoW consistency with the five key issue objectives. Membership of the WCSG is comprised of women leads representing specific geographical groups of operational units. Quarterly regional meeting will be held to report relevant issues.
To encourage better women representation within our company, Wilmar:
- Provides support for mothers, parents and families. This includes across the board provision of maternity leave, healthcare coverage for families, paternity and parental leave, child transport allowance, company sponsored creches and primary schools, subsidized secondary schools, and education support.
- Has specific programmes in our upstream plantation operations implemented under the Women Working groups (WoW) which are led by women workers in each specific locality. These programmes cover:
- Protection and care of female health – covering health and well being of the family unit, which starts with the health of the mother and her children;
- Care of Family Life and Welfare – covering programmes to improve nutrition and food security for the family, as well as overall security and safety of the family;
- Protection from Sexual Harassment and Violence – covering programmes of awareness raising and provision of a specifically trained investigation and support unit for any cases of sexual harassment and violence;
- Non-discriminatory, fair and equal opportunities at work and in worker representation – actively increasing women’s representation in worker committees and unions in order to help drive better discussions on women’s concerns within the workplace;
- Continuous education for personal and family life improvement – covering programmes to further education for women to focus on increasing knowledge to help with improving literacy and importance of education to family well being. Programmes will also focus on alternative livelihoods and income generation to mitigate challenges from climate change and other external factors.
Wilmar is committed to support the inclusion of smallholders into the supply chain.
Smallholder farmers play a crucial role in the palm oil industry, producing about 40% of the world’s palm oil. They also have a critical role in helping Wilmar achieve our business and sustainability goals. We therefore seek to promote an inclusive model that integrates these players into the global sustainable supply chain.
In comparison to companies with access to resource and agronomic expertise, smallholders face unique challenges in meeting sustainability compliance which could sideline them from the palm oil supply chain. Challenges include possibly having lower levels of agronomic know-how, and usually having poorer access to resources. Many smallholders may also have rights to indigenous or local lands (sometimes known as "Native Titles" in Malaysia, or "Lahan Ulayat" in Indonesia) with the explicit right to develop their own land. Wilmar conducts ongoing consultations and collaborations with smallholders and provide technical assistance and support to help them achieve compliance with our NDPE Policy and other sustainability policies.
We are working to ensure that 100% of our smallholder suppliers are supported by smallholder programmes. This means that each scheme and independent smallholder linked to our supply chain will have access to a platform for expertise and the sharing of best practice in order to meet their targets for sustainable production and economic growth. We encourage our third-party suppliers to develop their own programmes and welcome support from governments, civil society organisations (CSOs), customers, and other stakeholders to assist smallholders in achieving compliance.
100% of our scheme smallholders are covered by a Wilmar programme. We particularly strive to help our palm oil scheme smallholders achieve certification under applicable national certifications and, where relevant, RSPO guidance.
For our independent smallholders, we have programmes specific for each country to engage all smallholders. We target to benefit 100% of independent smallholder palm oil suppliers enrolled in/covered by our smallholder support programmes by 2020 for Ghana, 2023 for Nigeria, and 2025 for Indonesia. These programmes are sometimes linked to sustainable certification but is not exclusively an objective for our independent smallholders.
Please refer our smallholder programmes and empowerment initiatives page for more information.
Wilmar and all our suppliers must respect the rights of indigenous communities and their cultural heritage.
We pledge to respect and uphold legal and customary land tenure rights of communities and individual rights of Indigenous and local communities. Prior to any new planting, Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) must be granted to ensure local communities have clear and specific avenues to negotiate the conditions of any project. This is in accordance with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People (UNDRIP) and the High Carbon Stock Approach (HCSA) toolkit. We expect the same of our suppliers.
In land-related planning, participatory mapping is carried out to involve the communities, governments, and supporting NGOs. If a dispute or conflict arises, we will honour long-term relationships with the communities and amicably solve issues with all stakeholders, for example through mediation. Our operations teams will also work to identify and provide remediation whenever Wilmar has caused or contributed to negative human rights impacts, such as in relation to Indigenous and local communities’ rights and labour rights.
We provide infrastructure and programmes to facilitate community self-reliance at our operations for worker families and local communities. This includes the provision of schools, maintaining worker housing, and establishing public facilities in and around plantations. We also seek to support food security for local communities through assisting with crop diversity and security of food prices.
Please refer our community development programmes page for more information.
