Naivas has a total employee headcount in the thousands. The company will engage a third-party consultant to perform a labor audit, to cover a sample of stores and to assess working conditions and its level of compliance with local law as well as the requirements of the PS2, the audit will cover direct workers, security guards as well as contracted employees (ESAP #4). Based on that audit, the Employee Handbook might need to be updated and, as needed, the resulting action plan will be implemented.
The company has an Employee Handbook, applicable to direct employees, which acts as the human resources policy. The Handbook addresses basic employment aspects on recruitment, employee conduct, disciplinary process and performance management. Naivas will revise the Employee Handbook to adequately address the range of labor-related risks identified in the business, as required by Kenyan law and IFC PS 2, including grievance mechanism, retrenchment, workers’ organizations, third party workers, overtime work, expand its scope to include contracted workers and meet the minimum requirements by the Kenyan Employment Act, 2007 and IFC PS 2 (ESAP #5).
Naivas will amend the contracts with the outsourcing companies to request these companies to meet the minimum Employment Act, 2007 requirements and the PS 2 requirements. The company will set a verification mechanism to confirm compliance with all legal requirements (ESAP #6).
Working Conditions and Terms of Employment:
The company provides offer letters for direct staff including information on working hours, wages, overtime. The company will review the employment offer letters for direct staff to include overtime compensation, in line with the revised Handbook. The contract templates for outsourced staff and security providers were reviewed during the appraisal. These are one-year renewable contracts and as described before the company will follow up on compliance with local law.
Workers’ Organizations:
Some workers have voluntarily joined the Kenya Union of Commercial, Food and Allied Workers (KUCFAW). The Union has yet to meet the regulatory threshold of representing a majority of the workers to be eligible to enter into a recognition agreement with Naivas. The Company allows both direct and contracted workers to join unions at will. The revised Handbook will document the company’s official stance on respect for workers organization.
Non-discrimination and Equal Opportunity:
The Company’s Employment Handbook has an equal opportunities commitment, that proclaims the company’s commitment to treat all employees fairly and with dignity, irrespective of their sex, race, and marital status or disability It is indicated that the policy shall apply to promotion, training, placement, transfer, dismissal as well as remuneration, grievance and disciplinary procedures and decisions.
Retrenchment:
Given the large workforce at Naivas, employee turnover is typically an expected occurrence. The Company has a brief indication in the Employee Handbook that retrenchments will be handled as per the law. The procedure will be developed in line with the Employment Act and IFC PS 2 as part of the Employee Handbook revision and include such robust procedure as exploration of alternatives, timelines for communication, related grievance management process etc.
Grievance Mechanism:
The SoP book outlines the employee grievance management process. Naivas will revise employee grievance management procedure to cover the contracted workers and guide on documentation and communicate it to all staff as a section in the revised Employee Handbook.
Protecting the Workforce:
No child or forced labor is engaged in the operations. The employee recruitment process aligns to the Kenya’s legal provisions, which are designed to protect unsafe child labor or forced labor.
Occupational Health and Safety:
As a statutory requirement, OHS Audits are annually conducted at each store, and audit reports prepared for implementation. The SHE Committees at the store are required by law to undertake periodic risk assessments and coordinate implementation activities aimed at ensuring a safe workplace. To inform the identification of risks as part of the ESMS, Naivas will review the last audit report finings and develop risk registers for each store and assign responsibilities to relevant staff for their close out before the next audit period. As part of the ESMS, there will be an OHS Management Plan that will provide clear procedures for OHS risk identification, analysis, documentation and management across the business.
OHS training is conducted for new employees during their induction and consists of identifying key health and safety issues related to the work environment and discussing appropriate mitigating measures. The training is accompanied by new employees receiving a copy of the company's Health and Safety Policy. As part of the ESMS outputs, Naivas will develop a formal annual OHS training plan (within the OHS Management Plan) to guide consistency and continuity in training of staff to enhance risk awareness and avert incidents/accidents.
Naivas will complete its existing accident/incident register at each store, and a clear internal and external (regulatory) OHS incident reporting protocol, as required by Kenyan law and recommended by IFC PS.
Workers Engaged by Third Parties:
The labor audit and review of the Employee Handbook will be expanded to cover contracted workers (as already indicated in ESAP #5 above), including on grievance management. Where remodeling or renovation of new stores occurs in the planned expansion, contracted Firms will be required to align their labour policies and practices to minimum requirements set out in the Kenya’s Employment Act.
Supply Chain:
Naivas engages suppliers from diverse sectors, with varying E&S and food safety risks. Naivas will identify products with the potential of having child labor, forced labor and significant occupational health and safety risks, in particular products under its own brand. The company will review current conditions and as needed, will include minimum E&S requirements in the supply contracts to address these aspects. New clauses regarding child labor, forced labor and significant occupational health and safety risks will be applied for new contracts, as addenda to the existing contracts or as a condition for renewal of the expiring contracts (ESAP #7).
