Human rights and labour standards

PRINCIPLE 1: Support for human rights

PRINCIPLE 2: Elimination of human rights abuses

PRINCIPLE 3: Freedom of association and the right to collective bargaining

PRINCIPLE 4: Elimination of all forms of forced labour

PRINCIPLE 5: Abolition of child labour

PRINCIPLE 6: Elimination of discrimination

Commitments and management systems

  • Key labour standards of the ILO (International Labour Organization), embedded in a variety of corporate guidelines
  • OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises, embedded in a variety of corporate guidelines
  • International standards throughout the supply chain (amfori BSCI, Sedex SMETA, RSPO etc.)
  • METRO Business Principles
  • Code of Conduct for Business Partners
  • METRO Human Rights Guidelines in its own business operations and entire supply chain
  • METRO Anti-discrimination tenet
  • Policy social standards for all own brand suppliers producing in risk countries
  • Social standards clause in supplier contracts
  • The Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh
  • METRO guidelines on fair working conditions and social partnership
  • The Consumer Goods Forum Resolution on Forced Labour
  • The Consumer Goods Forum Resolution on Health & Wellness

Measures 2020/21

  • The colour-coding highlights the corresponding measures and achievements
  • Items with this bullet point do not have any corresponding passages
  • Continuous auditing of non-food, near-food and food producers according to Amfori Business Social Compliance Initiative (Amfori BSCI), Sedex audit according to SMETA or equivalent social standard systems. This applies according to a risk approach to all producers of certain typically human rights-critical food categories and industries as well as producers in defined risk countries (based on the Amfori BSCI assessment) where METRO SOURCING International (MSI) and METRO Food Sourcing (MFS) have imported goods manufactured, as well as to all above-mentioned risky producers who manufacture private label or own import articles for our sales divisions. The country organizations will be trained in the roll-out for near-food and food suppliers (valid since June 1, 2019) and gradually integrated into the process.
  • Training of suppliers to raise awareness of issues associated in particular with the Covid-19 pandemic, especially stricter hygiene regulations and potential human rights violations such as the risk of unregulated overtime as a consequence of the sometimes severe economic losses. At the same time, the Amfori BSCI and Sedex audits, which were largely not carried out, will be compensated for, thereby fulfilling the duty of care to ensure that human rights are respected even in the absence of audits.
  • Conducting an initial survey specifically on the topic of living wage through METRO SOURCING International (MSI).
  • In addition to its focus on social issues, MSI began using a self-assessment questionnaire to assess its producers’ compliance with environmental requirements during the fiscal year.
  • In the course of the fiscal year, the technical implementation was developed for defining the Code of Conduct as a “minimum requirement” and integrating it as a mandatory document in the new METRO Supplier Portal. After the function has gone live, all suppliers who have a business relationship with METRO will be able to read and agree to it.
  • Embedding the catalog of criteria for our social standard process in the food own-brand manual of the purchasing company European Food Sourcing (EFS). This strengthens the process so that, from the time the manual comes into force (October 1, 2021), all requirements for demonstrating human rights compliance are already in place at the time of tendering. The relevant documents must be available at the time of listing.
  • METRO is a signatory to the new International Agreement on Fire Protection and Building Safety in Bangladesh.
  • Since fiscal year 2019/20, we have changed our audit process for compliance with the Fair Working Conditions and Social Partnership (FWC & SP) guidelines at METRO companies based on Covid-19. Surveys on the Principles on Fair Working Conditions and Social Partnership (FWC & SP) are conducted online. The aim is to assess the current status of implementation of the FCW & SP principles in key units and to provide recommendations for improving the FWC & SP process. .
  • Unfolding of various occupational safety measures
  • Various events organized by the Women in Trade (WiT) employee network to help sustainably increase the proportion of women in management positions, promote internal and external dialog and create better conditions for women in the Group. 5 WiT country networks are active in France, Portugal, , Pakistan, Germany and Bulgaria. The number of network members at the Düsseldorf site is now around 500.
  • In the course of revising the strategy and due to the positive development in terms of achieving the target of increasing the proportion of women in management positions at METRO AG and METRO Wholesale, we have shortened the target achievement date of the current gender targets set by the Management Board on 26 July 2017 to 30 September 2020 (originally: 30 June 2022) and set ourselves new targets for September 2025. By September 2025, METRO AG aims to employ 25% women in the 1st management level below the Management Board and 40% in the 2nd management level below the Management Board. In addition, we have again voluntarily set a target for the share of women in management positions in our wholesale business. According to this target, the share of women in management positions at levels 1 to 3 (including store managers) is to be 30% worldwide by September 2025.
  • The METRO PRIDE employee network for lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transsexuals and intersexuals aims to raise awareness of sexual orientation and identity issues. In the fiscal year, the network engaged in activities including in various communication initiatives to contribute to the internal dissemination of METRO’s international LGBTIQ+ strategy and broader awareness and visibility on the topic.
  • Commitment to the LEAD (Leading Executives Advancing Diversity) network, of which METRO has been a member since 2016. The non-profit network at European level is committed to employing more women in the retail and consumer goods industries and supporting them in their careers in order to increase the proportion of women in management positions in these industries.
  • METRO offers all employees an eTraining on the topic of “Diversity + Inclusion”. The goal of the training is to ensure a common understanding of Diversity + Inclusion in general and at METRO. In addition, the eTraining demonstrates the importance of the topic in the business environment within METRO.
  • METRO AG organizes a virtual conference with another 15 companies from the Rhine-Ruhr region on the occasion of the German Diversity Day.
  • METRO maintains a constant exchange with works councils and trade unions both nationally and internationally. Plenary meetings are held once a year with a training event for all employee representatives of the Euro Forum and up to three times a year with the METRO Euro Forum Steering Committee, our European Works Council and management representatives. In addition, there is regular social dialogue with the international trade union organization UNI Global Commerce at global level, where, among other things, the commitment to fair working conditions and social partnership is discussed.

Achievements 2020/21

  • As of September 30, 2021, 569 of 717 active private label non-food producers and 58 of 165 corresponding food/near-food producers have passed the auditing process. Of these, 100% (569) of non-food producers and 98% (57) of food/near-food producers passed the audit.
  • 120 producers with 144 participants from 12 supplier countries were trained on human rights and fair working conditions via MSI in the reporting year.
  • Just under 50% of the approximately 1,000 suppliers contacted responded to the survey. The next steps will be training sessions focusing on this topic as well.
  • 13% of MSI producers listed with amfori BSCI responded to the self-assessment questionnaire on environmental compliance.
  • The operating units will be successively connected to the new portal, the new function will be activated in fiscal year 2021/22, and thus more and more suppliers will gradually be included.
  • As of September 30, 2021, factories reported in the Bangladesh Fire and Building Safety Agreement that produce for METRO SOURCING International and/or METRO national companies have completed 97% of their points for improvement. This includes points such as not interconnecting smoke detectors with fire alarms or not protecting circuit breakers mounted on the cable duct.
  • In fiscal 2020/2021, we added FWC & SP to our Risk Governance Process. No audits have taken place.
  • In the reporting year 2020/21, we established the Occupational health and safety management system (OSMS), which is based on the principles of ISO 45001 and was prepared in the fiscal year 2020, throughout the METRO Group.
  • Comprehensive organizational measures were implemented to ensure the occupational safety of all employees, particularly during the Covid-19 pandemic. These include:
    • Optimization of the flexible work offer
    • Travel restrictions and
    • Safety and hygiene measures at headquarters, stores and warehouse locations in METRO companies.
  • By September 2025, METRO AG aims to employ 25% women in the 1st management level below the Management Board and 40% in the 2nd management level below the Management Board. At the end of the financial year 2020/21, the share of women in the 1st management level below the Management Board will be 18.8% and 31.3% in the 2nd management level below the Management Board. In addition, we have voluntarily set ourselves a target for the share of women in management positions in our wholesale business. According to this target, the share of women in management positions at levels 1 to 3 (including store management) is to be 30% worldwide by September 2025. At the end of fiscal 2020/21, the share of women in management positions at levels 1 to 3 (incl. store managers) is 25.2%. In addition, according to the Supervisory Board’s target, at least 1 woman should be a member of the Management Board of METRO AG by June 2022. Andrea Euenheim was appointed to the Management Board of METRO AG as the new Labor Director effective November 1, 2019. METRO AG thus already achieved the target set by the Supervisory Board in 2019.
  • Various activities of the WiT employee network
    • Monthly digital Lunch & Learn meetings with up to 20 participants
    • 12 participants in the training "The Brand ME"
    • 10 participants in the virtual conference Emotion Women’s Days
  • Various activities of the METRO PRIDE employee network
    • Pilot LGBTIQ+ training with regional managers internationally to raise awareness of the issue.
    • Implementation of a Pride Month: daily Pride Ambassador videos on METRO’s internal communication platform United
    • Publication of infographics and a brochure on LGBTIQ+ Publication PROUTPERFORMER Germany lists various METRO Group employees (PROUT Executive Allies and PROUT Voices)
    • Participation in the LGBTIQ+ job fair Sticks & Stones (METRO AG, METRO Digital, METRO Markets and Hospitality Digital)
    • Development of a global LGBTIQ+ strategy
    • 1st METRO Pride Network internationally: in the reporting year 2020/21, the METRO Pride Network was launched at METRO Services in India.
    • Implementation of the LGBTIQ+ audit for METRO AG and achievement of Gold Status.
  • In fiscal year 2020/2021, METRO expanded its partnership with the LEAD Network. Since this fiscal year, the METRO Foundation has been a partner, demonstrating the importance and its own efforts to advance gender equality and inclusion in the retail and consumer goods industry.
  • In reporting year 2020/21 372 participants participated in a diversity & inclusion training of which 169 successfully completed all training questions.
  • The colour-coding highlights the corresponding measures and achievements
  • Items with this bullet point do not have any corresponding passages