Human Rights | PETRONAS Chemicals Group Berhad (PCG)

Why It Matters

Respect for human rights is a moral obligation. Every individual, regardless of gender, race or religion, deserves to be treated with dignity and fairness.

Respecting human rights is also essential for our business, as it builds trust with our employees, customers, suppliers and key stakeholders, as well as the communities where we operate.

Upholding human rights is also a requirement for our operating licence, as failure to do so could expose us to regulatory, legal and reputational risks.

Our Approach

We uphold internationally recognised human rights throughout our operations, in compliance with the PETRONAS Code of Conduct and Business Ethics (CoBE), and all relevant legal requirements, including the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGP BHR). This commitment applies to all employees, including third parties that perform work or services on PETRONAS premises.
We require our contractors and suppliers to comply with PETRONAS' CoBE and all relevant legal requirements. We also require them to respect internationally recognised human rights by adhering to the following key principles of PETRONAS' Contractors Code of Conduct on Human Rights (CoCHR):
1. Freedom of Labour
2. Prevention of Child Labour
3. Wages and Benefits
4. Working Hours
5. Establish Grievance Mechanism
6. Non-discrimination
7. Freedom of Association
8. Humane Treatment
9. Foreign and Migrant Workers
We conduct due diligence in the following areas to manage any potential social risks in our business activities: labour and working conditions, responsible security, community well-being, and supply chain management. We have also established a mechanism for our internal and external stakeholders which allows them to freely raise any complaints they may have and obtain effective and transparent resolutions.
We provide our employees with the right to raise their complaints freely without fear of discrimination, harassment or abuse. They can raise any grievances through their trade union representative, line manager and / or their human resource representative. We also require our suppliers to establish their own grievance mechanisms for their workforce. All grievances will be investigated and provided with timely and fair remedies when needed.
We encourage our non-executive employees to exercise their right to defend their economic and social interests by participating in workers’ unions. This collective bargaining process is led by PETRONAS’ Group Industrial Relations team, together with unions and management representatives.
We foster a culture of care, inclusion and safety among our stakeholders as well as the local communities in areas where we operate.

How We Provide Value

Labour and Working Conditions

Implemented the HSE Management System (HSE MS) to ensure our employees and contractors’ safety.

Freedom of Association and Collective Bargaining

Conducted regular engagement sessions between our unions (comprising Kesatuan Kakitangan PETROLIAM NASIONAL BERHAD and Kesatuan Pekerja-Pekerja OPTIMAL Chemicals (M) Sdn Bhd) and the Management to address and discuss union matters, which include:
1. Collective agreement provisions and implementation matters.
2. Terms and conditions for non-executives which are not stated in the collective agreement.
Diversity and Inclusion (D&I)

Focused our D&I programmes in four key areas: gender, multinational, age, and culture.

Security

Provided training on human rights policy and procedures to the PETRONAS Auxiliary Police, which manages the security personnel at our operating units in Malaysia.

Supply Chain

Embedded PETRONAS' CoCHR requirements into our contract documents and ensured compliance through audits and compliance assessments.

Conducted a series of engagement sessions to increase awareness on human rights management among our contractors and suppliers.

Community Well-Being

Conducted Social Risk Assessments (SRAs) throughout our projects and operations to ensure we could identify, assess and mitigate any social and human rights risk which may affect our stakeholders and the communities where we operate.

Established mechanisms to provide a platform for community members and other stakeholders to lodge their grievances, which were addressed in a systematic and effective manner.

Management Approach

Governance & Economic
Dimension

Corporate Governance