Human rights & employee relations

Our dedicated Human Rights Policy Statement complements DHL Group’s Code of Conduct, the basis and benchmark for all guidelines and regulations that ensure responsible and ethically irreproachable conduct within the Group. The Human Rights Policy Statement reflects our current operational values and procedures considering the requirements of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.

Our workforce comprises employees from various regions and cultures. Thus, it is essential that we create a common understanding with regard to respecting human rights and providing fair working conditions. We expect our managers to lead by example and to adopt an open and respectful approach when dealing with their employees. For this reason, we have made the Code of Conduct an integral component of our employment contracts with our managers.

The training measures and on-site inspections are of particular importance for raising the awareness of our employees and managers. These are carried out by specially trained and externally certified experts from the corporate divisions and corporate headquarters.

The Employee Relations Forum (ER Forum) ensures that human rights are respected at DHL Group. The Forum also assists local-level managers in implementing these solutions and measures by facilitating exchange among the divisions at regional and country level.

In addition, they give the local executives assistance with the implementation in everyday life, for example by promoting the exchange of experiences between the local managers in the divisions.

In addition to the dialogue with superiors and management representatives, our employees also use employee committees, works councils, trade unions or other bodies to represent their interests.

Worldwide, over 70 percent of our employees are in employment that is tied to works agreements, collective bargaining agreements or statutory wage increases.

The DHL Group Forum, a European works council by agreement comprising employee representatives and management representatives from 30 European countries, and its committees address key issues and how they impact the Group’s business growth in Europe. Topics include issues such as organizational change and the introduction of new work and production processes. The UNI Global Union federation and the European Transport Workers’ Federation are each entitled to send a representative to participate in the DHL Group Forum plenary sessions. These are held twice per year with the Board Member for HR in attendance.

At the global level we engage in regular dialogue with the Global Union Federations such as the UNI Global Union (UNI) and the International Transport Workers’ Federation (IFT). Our discussions, which we have now been conducting for more than ten years, focus on employee relations issues of global importance and their impact on DHL Group.

As Europe’s biggest postal service provider DHL Group is a member of the Brussels-based European Social Dialogue Committee for the Postal Sector and was appointed as Committee Chair at the end of 2016. The Committee discusses social issues with employers and union representatives from the postal sectors in Europe.