Improving HSSE standards – the case of Bangladesh
Country: Bangladesh
Topics: Enable and Social Environment and Climate
Last updated:
The 2008 disclosure of hazardous working conditions, pollution and underage labour at five tower-producing suppliers in Bangladesh, became a wakeup call for Telenor.
Background
It started with a Danish TV documentary broadcasted in May 2008, which documented unacceptable working conditions, pollution and underage labour at the facilities of five suppliers to Telenor’s mobile operator in Bangladesh, Grameenphone.
Actions taken
Following the revelations, Telenor initiated a series of immediate and long-term measures to improve HSSE standards and compliance, both in Bangladesh and across the entire group.
Here is an overview of the main measures taken:
| New Supply Chain Sustainability framework | A key result of the Bangladesh incidents in 2008, was the development and implementation of Telenor’s group-wide Supply Chain Sustainability (Supply Chain Business Assurance) framework. More about our group-wide supply chain monitoring |
| External environmental site assessment of all five suppliers of mobile towers in Bangladesh by risk management company Det Norske Veritas | The investigation revealed unsafe handling of hazardous production waste and lack of knowledge at several plants.Telenor instructed the plants to:
|
| Prevention of child labour | The Telenor Group now works with UNICEF Norway to prevent child labour in Bangladesh. See initiative “Combating child labour through education“ |