Internal Human Rights Management Practices and Performance
Phison has established the Regulations Governing Internal and External Communication and Complaint and Report Management, which is applicable to Phison's employees and external personnel having a business relationship with or stake in Phison. If the aforementioned personnel suffer or detect any unlawful infringement of rights, discriminations, improper punishments, violations of ethical management and conduct, violations of privacy and intellectual property rights, or other relevant matters, they may file complaints through the existing channels in which the complainants' names shall be provided, or through our anonymous feedback box. All complaints will be reported to the representative of the Corporate Sustainable Development Committee immediately, followed by the investigation in due course. All complaint cases must be approved by the representative before closing. A total of 2 pieces of opinions were received in 2023 from the anonymous opinion box; one was about rules and regulations, and the other was about environment cleaning / repairing, and both had been conveyed to respective responsible units for making improvement and adjusting management.
In 2023, the Company's internal RBA human rights audit compliance rate was 89%, and the non-compliance item was overtime. Auditors have reported the audit results to the Corporate Sustainable Development Committee for the management to get a grasp of the extent and performance of the implementation of human rights policy. For the deficiencies identified, the responsible units have proposed an improvement plan. We will focus on making improvement next year, upholding the goal of a 100% compliance rate.
Aside from formulating an unlawful infringement zero-tolerance policy, the Company also organizes internal and external trainings on stalking and harassment prevention and unlawful infringement prevention every year. All employees, including new hires and inservice staff, are required to be trained. The coverage rate for trainees is 100%. Seeing that unlawful infringement often occurs under imbalanced position of power, we hold the “Program on Illegal Infringement for Supervisors” and continue to arrange for all superiors to attend the "Workplace Unlawful Infringement Prevention" course, in which they will be informed of the definition of unlawful infringement, awareness, frequently occurred cases, and prevention principles. Furthermore, superiors need to take the "Finding Employees' Problems" course, during which they will be informed of their roles, responsibilities, and obligations, the indicators for employee abnormality, the Company's referral system and assistance system, and the Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs). The percentage of supervisors who have participated in the "Program on Illegal Infringement for Supervisors" in the past three years is 19%.
In addition, the Company distributes an unlawful infringement investigation questionnaire to employees after their physical checkup every year, in the hope to early identify risk and help them deal with it, if any. In 2023, the total number of copies distributed and the number of valid copies returned was 3,400. The Company tracked and analyzed those questionnaires, and found that 0.2% of employees believed that they were facing an unlawful infringement risk from outside. However, 0.47% of employees, a percentage about halved from the previous year, believed that they were facing an unlawful infringement risk from inside, mostly in the form of mental and language abuse. Infirmary staff will first inform them the internal and external resources available, and then inform them that the Company has in place management measures and grievance procedures for illegal workplace infringement, so that if a complaint is filed, it will be formally accepted and handled.