Building and maintaining good relations with and supporting the vitality of local communities close to our operations is essential for us and our business success.
Our engagement with communities is founded on decades of close co-operation. In many cases, communities have grown around our operations over the years. We aim to be a good neighbor and a trusted partner to the people living close to our operations.
We are committed to maintaining an active and open dialogue with the communities around us. UPM is a global company with both global and local impacts. In many locations, we are a significant employer, taxpayer and partner to local entrepreneurs, making positive contributions to the local economy. We apply several precautionary measures and safeguards to avoid and minimize potential adverse environmental and social impacts on our surrounding communities:
- Environmental and Social Impact Assessments
- Continuos human rights due diligence in our own operations and supply chain
- Third-party certified Management Systems, such as ISO 14001 (Environmental management) and 45001 (Occupational Health and Safety management) for production units
- Sustainable forest management certification (FSC and/or PEFC) of our own forestry operations and suppliers
- Restructuring processes planned in co-operation with workers, their organizations, local authorities and other relevant stakeholders
Providing extensive re-structuring programmes
In restructuring situations, we work in close co-operation with various stakeholders, including our workers, their organizations, authorities and other external parties, and provide financial support for retraining and re-employment, new business launches and relocation. In these situations, we observe international good practice and follow national labour laws.
In addition to mandatory obligations, we run extensive re-employment programmes for employees affected by a permanent closure of our operations or by restructuring. The key elements of our re-structuring programme are retraining, re-employment and relocation within the company, support for entrepreneurship and severance payments. We also offer different kinds of outplacement programmes that provide guidance for people within the scope of re-structuring. Active measures promoting employment and retraining are carried out in close co-operation with various authorities and other third parties.
Examples of minimum notice periods in UPM’s locations:
In Finland, the employer’s minimum notice period is determined in the Finnish Employment Contract Act and collective agreements, based on the length of employment: for employment of less than 12 years, the notice period varies between 14 days and four months, and for employment exceeding 12 years it is six months. Similarly, in Germany the minimum notice period is determined by the German Civil Code and adhered to by collective agreements. It is calculated based on the length of employment: from zero up to 20 years, the notice period varies accordingly from four weeks to seven months. In China, the minimum notice period is 30 days and is defined in local legislation.
