Respect for human rights

We are committed to respecting internationally recognised human rights. We conduct our operations with honesty, integrity and transparency towards all our stakeholders. We continuously develop our operations and processes further to prevent more efficiently any adverse impacts rights resulting from our operations.

Equal rights

Human rights belong to everyone, and we do not tolerate human rights violations in any form. The human rights of Metsä Fibre’s personnel, customers, suppliers, and all other stakeholders must be respected. 

We recognise our ability to contribute to positive human rights impacts and are committed to avoid any adverse human rights impacts and to address and mitigate such impacts if they occur. 

Our commitments

We respect internationally recognised human rights, as declared in the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights and ILO Labour Standards. We are also committed to acting in compliance with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and expect our business partners to do the same.

We are committed to ensuring that slavery, including child labour, forced labour, human trafficking or any other form of modern slavery, is not taking place in our own business or in our supply chain. 

1

Prohibition of forced labour

Forced labour in any form is forbidden. This includes modern slavery, human trafficking and bonded labour. Withholding wages or identity documentation, restricting movement, recruitment fees and the use of threat or intimidation are forbidden.
2

Prohibition of child labour

Any form of child labour is forbidden. Our suppliers must always comply with the ILO Minimum Age Convention (no. 138) and further ensure that young employees’ health, safety, development or school attendance is not jeopardised.
3

Fair employment practices

Wages, including overtime and benefits must equal or exceed the level required by applicable laws and regulations, and always constitute a living wage. Also our suppliers must comply with applicable laws, international conventions, and industry standards on working hours, as well as ensure that all workers have a signed employment contract in a language that is understandable to them. Employees’ legal right to freedom of association and right to collective bargaining must be respected.
4

Equal opportunities and non-discrimination

No one should be discriminated based on gender (including pregnancy), age, origin, nationality, language, religion, belief, opinion, political activity, trade union activity, family relationships, state of health, disability, sexual orientation, other personal characteristics or any other reason not based on the requirements of the work.
5

Anti-harassment

Harassment in any form is forbidden and the personal dignity of every individual must be respected. We allow no harassment or any other unacceptable behaviour, including sexual harassment, insults, bullying, intimidation, threats, abuse, exploitation or violence.
6

Respect for privacy

We respect everyone’s right to privacy, and process personal data in compliance with good data processing practices and applicable legislation.

Metsä Fibre’s sustainability objectives for 2030 support the development of human rights, in particular accident free work environment, responsible corporate culture and sustainable supply chain.
7

Ensuring supply chain’s compliance

We want to ensure that our suppliers operate in accordance with our human rights commitment.  We require all of our suppliers to commit to the Metsä Group Supplier Code of Conduct that covers key requirements regarding human rights and have many methods to verify that all suppliers comply with them. These practices include risk analysis and background checks, supplier assessments and audits. These tools have been integrated to our procurement processes.

In Metsä Group, we have conducted a human rights impact assessment to deepen our understanding of the actual and potential human rights impacts resulting from our operations. Examples of how human rights are visible in our own operations or in our supply chain include health and safety, fair employment practices, elimination of discrimination and harassment, prohibition of child and forced labour, freedom of association and collective bargaining and privacy and personal data protection.

Compliance and ethics channel

Our sustainability targets for 2030 support the development of human rights, in particular accident free work environment, responsible corporate culture and sustainable supply chain.

We encourage our personnel and stakeholders to raise their concerns if they detect problems in our operations. Our Compliance and Ethics Channel is available in ten languages and its technological implementation is overseen by an independent third party. Reports can be made anonymously. We are committed to protecting the privacy of whistleblowers and do not condone any counter measures against whistleblowers.

All breaches and violations, as well as suspected breaches and violations, brought to the attention of the company are investigated. Any illegal activities detected are reported to the authorities.