FGV : Continues to Uphold Internationally Recognized Labour Standards as Part of Its Sustainability Agenda

KUALA LUMPUR, 19 August - FGV Holdings Berhad (FGV) is pleased to announce that based on the recently published Independent External Assessment (IEA) Report by the Fair Labor Association (FLA), no non-compliances are identified based on FLA's forced labour benchmarks and found no evidence of child labour at FGV Holdings Berhad (FGV) operations. The report also recognises that progress has been made by FGV including its top management's commitment, policy alignment with international and national standards, and engagement with civil society organizations, especially at the headquarters level.

FLA conducted the IEA between November 2021 and January 2022 and involved a review of both FGV's management systems and field-level operations and it was based on the FLA's Workplace Code of Conduct (WCOC), which is derived from international labour standards and internationally accepted good labor practices.

FGV became a participating company of the FLA in 2019 and commits to implementing a long-term and comprehensive action plan to further strengthen various aspects of FGV's labour practices. This includes code alignment, recruitment process of migrant workers, capacity building and training modules on human rights of migrant workers, grievance mechanism as well a labour standard compliance monitoring system.

Dato' Mohd Nazrul Izam, Group Chief Executive Officer of FGV said, "FGV is fully committed to exemplary human rights' initiatives and our sustainability agenda has dedicated much effort to uphold labour standards in fulfillment of the United Nations' SDG in eliminating forced and child labour."

FGV's affiliation to FLA is subjected to independent assessment, validation and reporting by the FLA. In addition to this IEA report, FLA had also published its first and second validation report in October 2020 and April 2021 respectively. FGV, in consultation with FLA, has developed a comprehensive corrective action plan (CAP) to address and resolve all findings arising from the IEA. Many of the action items have already been implemented and relevant resources are identified to close the remaining gaps.

In keeping with the principle of transparency, FLA's IEA report together with FGV's CAP is published on FLA's website.

Further, as part of efforts toward petitioning for the revocation of the Withhold Release Order (WRO) by the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP), FGV, in November 2021 appointed ELEVATE as an independent third-party organisation to conduct an assessment of FGV's operations against the 11 International Labour Organization (ILO) Indicators of Forced Labour.

Labour rights is one of FGV's focus areas under the respecting human rights pillar of its groupwide sustainability framework and our commitment to human rights is also enshrined in our Group Sustainability Policy (GSP) that draws on key human rights instruments.

ENDS