At Paulig we recognise that our activities and business relationships can have actual and potential impacts on the human rights of the people in our value chain. We acknowledge that it is our responsibility and opportunity to address human rights impacts through our own activities and in our value chain.
We integrate our commitment to respect human rights into our policies and processes and apply it throughout our value chains and business relationships. Paulig’s Human Rights Principles, which were approved by the Paulig Board of Directors in Autumn 2024, outlines our commitment to respecting internationally recognized human rights and our approach to managing human rights issues. These principles complement our existing Ethical Principles and the Paulig Code of Conduct for Suppliers.
Strengthening Responsibility Across Our Value Chain
We are consistently engaged in mapping human rights-related risks, developing processes, and establishing more systematic due diligence practices with our suppliers and other partners. Our goal is to ensure respect for human rights within our business and across our value chain.
In 2023, we conducted a high-level screening of human rights risks in our value chain. As a result of this screening, forced labour was identified as one of the biggest risk factors in our supply chains. Paulig has several contract manufacturing suppliers in Thailand, whose majority of employees are migrant workers from the neighbouring countries in Southeast Asia. This was why we chose Thailand as our first piloting country for the human rights impact assessment.
Piloting the human rights impact assessment as a future model for Paulig
As part of our due diligence work, we conducted a deep dive on human rights impacts at our contract manufacturing suppliers in Thailand together with local and international human rights experts from KPMG. For this pilot, we selected two of our suppliers. The purpose of the assessment was to conduct a human rights deep dive to assess actual and potential adverse impacts and have meaningful engagement with affected rightsholders, and to conduct a rapid analysis of the root causes of identified impacts. In addition, the aim was to build and pilot a model for Paulig to conduct similar deep dives into other value chains and countries.
As preparation for the assessment, we familiarised ourselves with the overall human rights situation in Thailand and conducted background research on our suppliers and their human rights work. We reached out to stakeholders such as the International Labor Organisation and the International Organization for Migration representatives in Thailand to understand the challenges faced by migrant workers, but also to the Foundation for Education and Development (FED), which is working locally with Burmese migrants in Thailand.
Our primary concern was to ensure that the voices of migrant workers from Myanmar, Cambodia, and Laos — often the most vulnerable and rarely heard — were truly acknowledged. Through meaningful discussions with both the workers and our suppliers’ management, we gained valuable insights into their human rights practices. We were reassured to verify that both suppliers uphold the principles of responsible recruitment, including the crucial Employer Pays Principle. This practice allows migrant workers to begin their employment without falling into debt and ensures that when official documents require renewal, the associated costs are covered by the employer — leaving more income available for their daily living needs.
During the assessment, we also identified that the human rights management by both suppliers is not yet fully matured and thus increasing knowledge and capacity building is needed. We recognised that building strong collaborative relations with our suppliers is essential to jointly address needed improvements and possible impacts. Leverage is crucial in creating a positive impact and ensuring human rights are respected in the supply chains. As a next step, Paulig will follow through the conclusions of the human rights impact assessment with our suppliers and aims to continue deep dives with the rest of our suppliers in Thailand.