Kumho Tire has established a Human Rights Policy in accordance with international organizations’ principles on human rights protection and labor, such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, UNGP, and ILO Declaration. Kumho Tire adheres to international standards and guidelines related to human rights and labor, and are actively promoting human rights management. Human Rights Policy is formulated considering stakeholders vulnerable to human rights risks, including women, children, and customers, and it outlines the fundamental principles for promoting human rights management. This policy applies to all employees in domestic and international business sites, and we strive to extend its application to key stakeholders such as suppliers, customers, and local communities. To systematically promote human rights management, we have established a management process to minimize human rights risks for employees and stakeholders and regularly inspect and evaluate these risks. Through this process, we identify and perform improvements on actual and potential human rights risks to minimize negative impacts arising from business operations.

🔗Human Rights Policy

Kumho Tire aims to gradually increase the proportion of business sites subject to human rights impact assessments. In 2023, Kumho Tire conducted human rights impact assessments on 50% of a total of 10 domestic and international business sites. Kumho Tire plans to expand these assessments to all domestic and global business sites by 2025, and aims to maintain 100% of the assessment rate on business sites by 2030.

Background and Purpose of the Human Rights Impact

Global regulations and customer demands regarding corporate human rights issue management, such as the EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) and the U.S. Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, are increasingly being strengthened. In response to these global trends, Kumho Tire recognizes the importance of human rights management and conducts human rights impact assessments, in order to identify and manage potential human rights risks in its business operations. This human rights impact assessment, in particular, adopts global standards and guides to human rights due diligence, such as the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and the EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive. Kumho Tire plans to extend human rights impact assessments beyond domestic operations to overseas business sites and supply chains, while also monitoring the effectiveness of improvement measures to strengthen human rights risk management.

Human Rights Impact Assessment Process

Kumho Tire has conducted human rights impact assessments based on indicators designed to identify human rights risks for stakeholders who can possibly be affected by negative impact from human rights risks, including employee, labor unions, suppliers, local residents, and customers, as well as who may be vulnerable to those risks such as children and minorities. This year’s human rights impact assessment was carried out in four major stages: ➀ Planning the implementation, ➁ Identifying human rights risks, ➂ Improvement activities, and ➃ Monitoring and planning. We specifically examined the overall human rights management system, including human rights policies, grievance mechanisms, and monitoring, as well as 12 diagnostic areas derived from key human rights issues in the tire industry and global human rights guidelines.

Human Rights Impact Assessment Results

Applying a total of 257 diagnostic items in the human rights impact assessment revealed four areas requiring improvement. The issue with the highest need for improvement was ‘management of business suppliers and supply chains,’ which needs institutional and practical support measures for managing the human rights risks of suppliers’ employees. Although Kumho Tire currently shares the principles of human rights respect through the Supplier Code of Conduct, there is a need for improvements, such as incentives to encourage policy compliance and conducting human rights due diligence. To address this, in 2024, Kumho Tire has established a comprehensive supply chain due diligence system, from risk assessments of key domestic and international suppliers, in order to develop and implement improvement plans with monitoring. 

Additionally, based on the previous year’s human rights impact assessment results, Kumho Tire is implementing the improvement activities that were established. To build a substantive organizational structure for human rights management, Kumho Tire has designated the People & Culture Working Group as responsible for revising human rights policies, setting goals, monitoring indicators, and implementing improvements. The ESG Management Committee oversees the reporting, management, and supervision of related activities. Furthermore, to enhance human rights education, which was previously at the level of mandatory legal training, Kumho Tire has integrated human rights education programs into the training courses for organizational leaders and new employees. In this manner, Kumho Tire is implementing improvement measures for the identified areas requiring improvement, and monitoring the effectiveness of the measures to ensure risk mitigation.

 2024 Key Human Rights Issues and Response Measures

Internal Grievance Reporting System

Kumho Tire operates an internal grievance reporting system to protect employees in cases of workplace grievances and difficulties, sexual harassment, bullying, and other human rights violations. Reports are handled promptly in accordance with procedures, ensuring anonymity and confidentiality to prevent any disadvantages or discrimination against the reporter.

Grievance Handling Reporting Targets

Promotion of Diversity and Inclusion

Efforts to Prevent Discrimination

To create an environment that respects diversity and inclusion, Kumho Tire strives to prevent any form of discrimination in hiring, work opportunities, and working conditions. In addition to providing interviewers with gender equality training in hiring process, all procedures in selection of promotion and training are fairly implemented to prevent discrimination.

First Female Executive Appointment

Kumho Tire appointed its first female executive during the 2023 executive reshuffle. This significant decision enhances corporate diversity and inclusion, recognizing talent and capability regardless of gender. It also demonstrates open opportunities and potential to our female employees, and promotes a positive societal perception of women’s career development and leadership.

Human Rights Education

Kumho Tire conducts human rights training for all employees annually, including statutory training such as disability awareness, sexual harassment prevention, and workplace bullying prevention, as well as a training on Human Rights Policy. Additionally, specialized training is provided to employees responsible for tasks requiring special attention to human rights protection or those in positions easily influenced by human rights issues. This includes gender equality education for recruitment interviewers, privacy protection education for employees handling personal data, and additional training for executives and managers to prevent workplace bullying. Starting in 2023, human rights education has been extended to new employees to prevent human rights violations and foster a corporate culture that respects human rights.