Goal 10. Reduce inequalities within and among countries
Our Code of Conduct (add link) and Human Rights Policy (add link) make clear our commitment to the principle of equal employment opportunity for all employees and to providing employees with a work environment free of discrimination. Our Human Rights Policy is guided by common principles found within the United Nations Universal Declaration on Human Rights and Guiding Principles for Business and Human Rights, and the International Labor Organization’s Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, among others. This includes a commitment to providing all workers with fair wages and equal remuneration for work of equal value and upholding all applicable fair wage laws, wherever we work. We pay wages that meet or exceed the legally required wage or local industry standard. We comply with all laws regarding leave and maternity protection. We also provide paid vacation time for all employees and paid parental leave for most of our employees.
To improve workplace diversity, equity and inclusion, we set a goal to increase the number of women in senior leadership roles globally by 50% in the next five years and achieve gender parity in these roles by 2032. In the U.S., our goal is to increase the number of people from underrepresented groups in senior leadership roles by 50% in the next five years and achieve general population ratio by 2032. To achieve this, we launched new initiatives to attract and advance diverse talent such as expanding our external candidate pool; improving diversity of interview panels; increasing internal job posting transparency; enhancing our mentoring programs; and improving movement of talent within our organization to sharpen and build skills.
As part of our commitment to ensure fairness in our pay practices and performance review process, we engaged a third-party expert to conduct our first pay equity review and to evaluate our performance review practices. Our intention is to embed these reviews in our annual processes going forward. For our pay equity review, we strive to achieve pay parity. In 2021, the pay equity review compared pay for like jobs, specifically focused on base pay for gender (globally) and ethnicity (U.S. only). The review reflected that pay for women and men on a global basis is generally administered fairly. It also found that, in the U.S., pay for employees in underrepresented groups is generally administered fairly when compared with those in non-underrepresented populations. We continue to conduct detailed analyses to identify and address any pay inequities. The performance review evaluation compared performance rankings for gender (globally) and ethnicity (U.S. only). The review did not have any significant findings and confirmed that performance appraisals are generally administered fairly.
We expect our suppliers to share our values. Our Supplier Code of Conduct (add link) outlines our health, safety, environmental, social, governance and ethical expectations for those with whom we do business. We utilize the globally recognized EcoVadis platform to better understand our suppliers’ sustainability performance.
Finally, we encourage employees to speak up if they have concerns about violations of Company policies or the law by reporting the issue to their supervisor or manager, Human Resources representative, or any member of the Legal or Compliance Department. We also offer an independent whistleblower telephone helpline and website (link to Ethicspoint), which is available 24-hours a day and in multiple languages. The whistleblower telephone helpline is available to all employees as well as any other stakeholder. LyondellBasell prohibits retaliation against people raising concerns and investigates any allegation that such retaliation has occurred.