Martur employs around 5,200 as of 2018 all in its facilities/offices including its subsidiary companies in Turkey, Russia, Romania, Algeria, Poland, Morocco and design offices/warehouses in some other European cities.
Third party workers are employed in cleaning, catering, bus transport and some maintenance services. Only in Romania, many of blue-collar workers (530) are engaged through an employment agency based on short-term contracts. All other employees are engaged through long-term contracts.
The company’s international expansion is expected to create about 1,100 jobs in Martur’s workforce directly (particularly in Morocco and Romania) and several new jobs at its supply chain.
Human Resources Policies and Procedures:
Human resources (HR) policy, systems and procedures are centrally designed and applied to all the group companies and are consistent with local labor laws and IFC PS2. Corporate HR department coordinates with the HR teams at each facility and ensures that necessary adjustments are made to align with the national laws of the country. Compliance of facilities with labor laws of respective locations is currently followed through compliance charts and the local HR teams in charge.
All workers engaged by the Company are given employee’s handbook together with the labour contract, which articulates their rights under respective labor regulations and any applicable labor agreements, including working hours, compensation, benefits, maternity, holiday and disciplinary procedures, ethics code, HR policy, performance management, training, health and safety policy, company presentation and certifications, emergency management and corporate social responsibility (CSR) policy. These HR policies and procedures will be extended to the new facilities being developed under the project.
Grievance Mechanism:
Martur has developed a grievance mechanism procedure in line with IFC PS2 requirements and has rolled-out across all facilities in different countries. According to this procedure, there are different channels for receiving and addressing worker grievances in Martur and subsidiary facilities. Grievances can be received through the worker representatives system, a suggestion system present in all facilities, accessible through SAP (via kiosks for blue-collar workers) or suggestion boxes.
For handling sensitive grievances, Martur prepared an awareness video on ethics, encouraging the use of hotline and e-mail address for sensitive grievances (harassment, mobbing etc.) which allow anonymous submissions. This video is translated to all different languages and made part of the employee induction. Anonymous channels (hotline, suggestion box) are currently present in Turkey plants and being developed in international facilities, followed through IFC’s ESAP under the ongoing equity investment in Martur. The grievance mechanism will be extended to the new facilities being developed under the project.
Workers Engaged by Third Parties:
Martur has a contractor management policy applicable to all its subsidiaries. All contractor workers are required to abide by OHS rules of Martur and show proof of their social security registration as required by their contracts. The records of all contractor workers and the contractor’s regulatory compliance as well as the environmental risk assessment of the contractor company are maintained in the contractor management system. All contractor employees working in Martur sites are required to undergo a 2 hours OHS training and medical examination. Employers of contractors also receive separate trainings.
For all facilities, catering, transport, cleaning, construction, security, quality and some maintenance services are contracted. Moreover, as specified in the previous sections, many of blue-collar workers in Romania are employed through an intermediary agency which is one of the largest employment agencies operating in Romania, working with several well-known national and multinational clients. As per their contract explaining their duties and rights, the workers are entitled to working hours, wage and annual paid leave rights as well as additional benefits as rest of Martur workers.
This indirect hiring arrangement is due to labor market conditions in Romania, as after the EU membership, finding qualified workers became a major challenge for the businesses. There is currently high turnover rate among the blue-collar workers in Romania plant (around 57%) which is slightly below the market conditions in Pitiesti, where several OEM suppliers are based. Martur management aims to transform part of indirect contracts to direct long-term contracts by 2020 to achieve longer retention for core tasks.
There are specific hygiene and evaluation procedures for the catering services and the contractors are required to be ISO 22000 HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points) certified. All contractors are annually audited. They are also shadowed by in-house employees in charge of catering and transport.
Working Conditions and Terms of Employment:
The company has an Employee Handbook in line with labor laws and IFC PS2 requirements applicable to all operations. Employees either work in a 3 or 2-shift system based on production needs of the section.
Blue-collar wages are determined each year based on several factors: inflation rates, type of work, seniority, union rates, sectoral benchmarks, and minimum wage in respective countries.
In line with the overtime procedure, overtime work requests are communicated to workers at least one day in advance and a formal request has to be made through the SAP. Overtime payments are being made in line with country specific regulations.
Fringe benefits are offered depending on country or location, including bank promotions, food or fuel supply for the family, social gatherings etc. Food during working hours is offered in form of allowance in most international plants. Bus transport is provided to workers.
Workers’ Organization:
The HR policy of the company recognizes workers’ rights to form or join unions of their own choosing and collective bargaining. Currently there are no active workers’ unions at any of Martur or subsidiary facilities.
Martur implements its own employee representation system. Representatives elected through secret votes for each group of 30 workers, have direct semi-annual meetings with top management. Pay rises and fringe benefits are negotiated in these meetings without constituting a formal collective bargaining agreement, also the company’s overall strategies are shared. Representatives also work with HR department regularly. The worker representative system is currently present in Turkey and Romania, expected to expand in other locations. A formal collective bargaining agreement is in place only for white collar workers in Romania, as it is required for companies employing more than 20 workers.
Non-discrimination and Equal Opportunity:
Martur has a business ethics policy disclosed on its website, covering all its operations, committing to ensure a fair work environment, being an equal opportunity employer, respecting privacy of employees and confidentiality of their information, and also expressing intolerance for any discrimination based on language, race, sexual and political orientation, belief, religion, sect, age, physical disability and other reasons whatsoever.
Martur management is committed to raise share of women employees to 28 %, which is currently 26%. Women’s share among the workforce has already increased from 24% in 2016. Women are mostly employed in seat cover sewing and quality control sections of the operations as well as white-collars. Martur also has a pilot program successfully expanding in the last two years which promote hiring of women in non-traditional jobs (welding). Martur HR, in coordination with plant level HRs, is in charge of screening local regulations and compliance regarding conditions of women’s employment, maternity related rights (kindergarten, allowance, lactation rooms and permits etc.) and night work.
Martur has been showcased in recent IFC Case Study `Tackling Childcare: The Business Case for Employer-Supported Childcare` for the quality childcare services it provides to employees in Kutahya (Turkey) to support employment of women. The report is available at: https://www.ifc.org/wps/wcm/connect/topics_ext_content/ifc_external_corporate_site/gender+at+ifc/priorities/employment/tackling_childcare_the_business_case_for_employer_supported_childcare
Good practices in employing women in non-traditional jobs, supporting maternity rights and childcare provisions are planned to expand to international facilities.
Retrenchment:
Martur has a centrally developed a Collective Termination procedure which includes a commitment to prepare a retrenchment plan in line with IFC requirements. Country HR units review and adapt this procedure in line with their local labor code requirements. The company generally has an increasing number of workforce. However, as the car industry is prone to economic impacts, voluntary separation programs are implemented on a case by case basis when needed.
Protecting the Work Force:
The Business Ethics Policy and Rules of Martur applicable to all its operations states that `employment of children is strictly prohibited and may not be tolerated`. The HR policy states corporate minimum working age as 18 years old and involves adequate verification mechanisms for workers both in Martur facilities and contractors.
Martur is not employing any forced labor, in line with its business ethics policy and relevant country regulations.
Occupational Health and Safety:
All the facilities of Martur and subsidiaries in Turkey and Romania have OHSAS 18001 management system certification. Algeria and Russia facilities are expected to obtain in 2019.
The OHS management system includes screening and monitoring mechanism for OHS related regulatory requirements; regular independent inspections organized by Martur HQ and plants’ own audit programs, as well as improvement plans based on risk assessment and inspection findings. The risk assessment studies and inspection reports identify source of the environmental impact/hazard/risk; potential root causes; risk calculation table; related legal requirements; corrective actions identified and implemented; responsibilities and risk calculation after corrective actions. The follow-up mechanism for the implementation of corrective actions is planned to be improved within the updated ESMS software to allow more effective monitoring by the HQ.
Martur aims to minimize any equipment related incident by choosing proper technologies. The forklifts and automated guided vehicles (AGV) are equipped with speed control mechanisms (maximum 10 km/hr) and photocell system to avoid collisions by auto-stopping. The pressing and metal stamping machines are equipped with photocells and censors to avoid hand trapping.
OHS issues are managed by plant level OHS teams under supervision of Martur’s central OHS manager in line with corporate procedures. Good OHS implementation is observed in international plants visited (Algeria, Romania) with adequate signage, demarcated walking ways and SOPs backed by regular OHS team audits. Minor gaps in housekeeping, use of personal protective equipment (PPE) and ergonomic supports were observed which can be improved by more regular supervision by OHS and wider awareness among workplace supervisors and workers.
Lost-time incident rates are observed to be lower than international benchmarks for international plants of Martur (average of 3.19 compared to 6). Turkey plants have improved their OHS performance in the last few years but still having higher LTIFR rates than international benchmarks in some of the locations (10.5 average LTIFR in Turkey plants). Martur has a zero-incident policy and OHS incidents are among the monthly KPIs followed by top management for all Ustunberk Holding companies. The incident reporting system that also covers the contractors, tracks near misses and first aid incidents as well as lost time incidents.
Two worker transportation bus accidents took place in Turkey last year without fatality, impacting 8 workers. Similar accident also occurred previous year. Bus transportation is provided in all locations for workers however a road safety program is not in place to audit safety of bus contractors. As per ESAP #2 Martur will develop a road safety program that includes developing contractor selection and screening requirements, standardized vehicle checklists to make sure all vehicles are well maintained and equipped for emergencies, speed control systems and safe driving requirements for drivers, accident reporting, training OHS teams to conduct regular inspections on worker buses, defensive driver trainings and worker awareness. Martur will roll-out this program to all facilities.
As indoor VOC monitoring is a critical part of Martur operations due to materials used in foam production, Martur has developed a common workplace monitoring program as part of its previous ESAP requirements to IFC. Common indicators are being measured on an annual basis by an independent company and reported to Martur management, including VOCs, dust, noise, heat, vibration and light intensity. According to the workplace monitoring data for 2018 provided for all Martur plants, the facilities were found to be generally in line with national and IFC standards. Martur is also undertaking improvements in air extraction and ventilation measures to improve air quality within the plants. A successful upgrade was implemented in Akcalar plant in Turkey in 2017 and there is an ongoing project in Algeria expected to complete within this year.
Supply Chain:
Martur has supplier screening mechanism for its facilities, mainly focused at the contracting stage by requesting environmental and OHS risk assessment of the supplier and social security records of its employees. Most of the suppliers for Martur International plants are located in Turkey and some are part of Ustunberk Holding.
