Nokia Response to Make IT Fair. June 2009

Global standards
Nokia shares the views of Make IT Fair that good labor standards should be a right of every worker, and we take seriously our responsibility to promote high environmental and social standards in our supply chain. Activities that break Nokia’s global standards in these areas and national laws are totally unacceptable.

For many years we have had rigorous health and safety, environmental and labor standards that all of our suppliers wherever they are in the world must meet, and also apply to their own suppliers.

These standards already cover the specific requirements Make It Fair have highlighted should be addressed in relation to working hours and pay.

• Fair working hours and time off - Suppliers shall ensure that employees can perform assigned tasks efficiently without exceeding the maximum working hours as defined by local labor laws or applicable collective agreements. Suppliers shall ensure that employees have at least one day off per seven-day week, and that overtime work is voluntary. Holidays (e.g., public holidays) and leaves of absence (e.g., medical or parental) shall comply with local labor laws or applicable collective agreements.
• Compensation and benefits - Suppliers shall provide all employees (permanent, temporary, apprentices and contract workers) with fair compensation (wages /salaries) meeting or exceeding local legal and industry minimum standards, for regular as well as overtime work. Suppliers shall also provide employees with benefits to reward contributions, skills and behavior considered vital to success.

Assessments
Before agreeing to work with a supplier we ensure that these standards are met, and we visit a number of suppliers on an ongoing basis to review standards. You can find out more about these visits and how we assess our suppliers here.

If we find that standards are not being met we do not walk away but work with that supplier to address the issues and in so doing help to raise overall standards of employment. Under no circumstances will we accept any illegal behavior and will take swift action if we find this is the case.

Working to continually raise standards

Beyond legal compliance there are concerns around the need to raise the standard of working conditions in factories to match those in other parts of the world. Nokia shares these concerns and has for some years been working with its supply chain to move beyond legal compliance and promote improvements in social and environmental practices, especially in developing markets where the industry is still relatively young.

We work with suppliers on an ongoing basis to provide training and support to help them implement and improve standards.

For example, recently we have been working with a number of suppliers on ongoing checks and improvements around health and safety. To date this has resulted in improvements including better machine safety, training, promotion of personal protective equipment use, noise reductions, and improving ventilation. In another area, a number of suppliers have over the last year taken measure to increase employee representation, establish employee welfare committees, and created feedback and grievance mechanisms for employees to raise and resolve concerns. For more information on training and building capability please click here.

Nokia has been at the forefront of driving action and awareness of ethical standards with its own suppliers and within the wider electronics industry. There will always be areas beyond just legal compliance that can be improved and we feel it is the responsible approach to work with suppliers address these, rather than walk away when there are problems. We welcome public debate and feedback from external groups where it helps to drive further improvements. We will continue to discuss these issues with the Make IT Fair project and actively investigate any concerns or claims of bad practice.

For more information on ethical sourcing issues please click here.