Employee relations and labour rights

We respect and uphold fundamental labour rights and determinedly pursue constructive employee relations in every area of our business.

Sustainability Report 2023

Why employee relations and labour rights matter

The way we treat our employees, and their representatives, is fundamental to our success – and never more so as our landside operations expand. We are committed to respecting labour rights and ensuring constructive employee relations in all our workplaces.

These commitments are based on core ILO conventions and internationally accepted frameworks from the UN and OECD, as well as compliance with applicable local legislation where we operate.

Our ambition

We offer decent, fair and equal working conditions and strive to make Maersk a good place to work for all employees. We identify risks for third-party labour and implement mitigating and preventive actions. We also involve employees in our efforts to ensure that we adequately consider our responsibilities towards our people as our business grows.

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Employee relation and labor rights

Our targets

100%
Of employees within Maersk trained in employee relations and labour rights by 2024.

Highlights in 2023

Community Pictogram
90% of employees trained in employee relations and labour rights
Reaching all employees is an ongoing challenge, however we keep the rigour of a 100% annual target.
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Global third-party labour standard roll-out
In 2023 we clarified labour expectations for suppliers with new third-party labour standards, including child labour guidelines

Priorities and actions

Our priority is to ensure constructive employee relations with full support for the rights to freedom of association and collective bargaining. We actively engage with trade unions, workers councils and other employee representative bodies, and take a proactive approach to managing new challenges responsibly as the scope of our business grows.

Decision Making

Managing our commitments

We manage our employee and labour rights commitments using a central governance system,  and policies covering specific business areas of our business.
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Driving progress

An established Employee Relations Council sets direction and monitors progress. All our employees receive training on employee relations and labour rights.
Inspection

Third-party labour rights

We proactively invest in solutions to emerging issues, such as third-party labour working conditions.
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Rights on land

Our Global Integrator-strategy has a built-in expansion for our labour rights-related activities on land.

Featured highlights and case stories

Equal pay for equal work

We target equal pay for equal work, ensuring that any differences are due to objective factors such as experience, skills, knowledge and performance, and not due to gender or any other characteristics such as ethnicity, race, nationality, age, disability, religion, beliefs or sexual orientation.

In 2023, we had a continued focus and refined approach to equal pay for equal work. We aim to ensure that any differences in pay are due solely to objective factors such as experience, skills, knowledge and performance

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Sustainability Report 2023

Explore our progress on environmental, social and governance dimensions in our latest Sustainability Report.
Sustainability Report 2023

Explore more Social topics

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Human capital

It takes talent to drive transformations. See how Maersk ensures a highly engaged workforce with the right skills is on board for the journey.
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Human rights

Human rights are at the heart of our ESG commitments. Learn more about our human-centric approach to sustainable transformation.
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Diversity, equity and inclusion

We are committed to creating diverse and inclusive workplaces where every Maersk employee feels equally included and valued for who they are and what they contribute.
Seafarers captured in Århus (Denmark) and Hamburg (Germany)

Safety and security

Follow our progress as we embed the capacity to fail safely into our business and the industries we influence.
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Inclusive trade

We have a significant role to play in ensuring global trade is open, inclusive and trusted. Read more about our progress on improving access to supply chains.

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About us

Learn more about A.P. Moller - Maersk, our values, leadership, our history and more.
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