Human Rights
Human Rights Policy and Management
HIWIN supports and adheres to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the United Nations Global Compact, the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, and the OECD Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Business Conduct, among other fundamental human rights principles and the laws and regulations in each of our global locations of operations. HIWIN has established a human rights policy to protect the human rights of our employees, suppliers, contractors, and communities worldwide. HIWIN not only requires compliance with labor-related regulations in our own employment practices, but also refrains from forcing unwilling employees to engage in labor practices. Additionally, through an assessment process, we evaluate suppliers’capabilities in seven major categories based on the “Responsible Business Alliance (RBA) Code of Conduct,” which includes labor management mechanisms. This ensures that our supplier partners uphold basic human rights, protect employees’ lawful rights from unlawful infringement, and collectively implement corporate social responsibility.
HIWIN follows the Human Rights Policy and Specific Management Plan as the highest guiding principle for human rights governance work to accurately identify, prevent, and mitigate human rights-related impacts and effectively manage human rights issues. Meanwhile, HIWIN aligned with international sustainability standards by establishing a human rights due diligence process and conducting human rights due diligence in 2023.
Management principles
HIWIN focuses its human rights management on employees, suppliers, and the community. We aim to prevent incidents that could harm human rights through various due diligence methods and grievance channels.
Human rights risk identification and assessment
Out of the 18 issues in the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, we confirmed no violation occurred for three issues from empirical data. For the 15 remaining issues under six major categories, which are labor rights, environmental rights, freedom of expression and participation, gender equality, product development/advertising/use and services, and governance and safety, we assessed human rights risks by questionnaire. This assessment involved 40 ESG members from various departments, including manufacturing, R&D, finance, and administration department. They evaluated the significant human rights issues for HIWIN Taiwan employees, measuring the importance and impact of each human rights indicator on the employees and the value chain from a cross-departmental perspective. We improved and implemented mitigation measures for medium- and high-risk human rights issues based on the questionnaire results. The execution results are tracked and reviewed annually. HIWIN reviews and reassesses significant human rights issues every three years based on human rights principles, labor laws, and global human rights topics.
Training on human rights protection
HIWIN provides education and promotion of government policies on environmental safety and health, labor, new regulations for public companies, trade secrets, and information security through internal and external courses, as well as internal announcements. To strengthen employees’ knowledge and application of laws and regulations, we integrated human rights issues into training materials to ensure an equal, friendly, and mutually respectful work environment.
Employee Feedback Channels and Case Management
HIWIN places a high value on employee opinions and rights. Our goal is to establish effective twoway communication between employees and the Company, ensuring that employees’ rights are protected and that any negative impacts are minimized. To achieve this, we have established various communication channels. In addition to regular labor-management meetings, we have created a dedicated employee mailbox and dedicated personnel in each factory to address their needs and listen to their voices. This allows us to continuously improve and create a workplace environment that is supportive of our employees.
Regular labor-management meetings
HIWIN engages in two-way communication with employees by listening to their feedback during quarterly labor-management meetings. These meetings provide an opportunity for employees to express their opinions and for the Company to make subsequent improvements. Even during the pandemic, online meetings were promptly held to maintain the relationship between labor and management. In 2023, a total of 24 sessions were conducted.
Employee dedicated mailbox
HIWIN provides three employee suggestion email addresses, allowing employees to directly send feedback to the Global Chairman, President, and Human Resources department. This ensures prompt, fair, and confidential processing of employee opinions, enabling objective and comprehensive handling. All previous complaints have been successfully resolved.
Unlawful infringement, harassment, and discrimination case handling procedures
Our objective is to maintain a safe and secure working environment for employees during their job responsibilities. In the event that an employee encounters physical violence, verbal abuse, psychological threats, sexual harassment, or stalking, we are committed to upholding their gender equality, personal dignity, privacy, and mental and physical well-being. To address such cases, we have implemented the following process:
Employee feedback cases in 2023
In 2023, we collected 20 cases of employee feedback from various channels, and each case was processed in accordance with the procedure.