The Board recognizes the importance of rights of all stakeholders including internal groups (employees and Management of the company) and external groups (shareholders, customers, trade partners, creditors, competitors, government staffs, and other associated parts such as community where the company is located, environment, and society). The company understands the driven force from the stakeholders, which will create the ability to compete and make profits to the company, contributed to the long-term success of the company. Above all, the company realizes the importance of rights of stakeholders, detail as following :-
Shareholders : The company treats shareholders fairly and equally with the basic rights and adheres to the practices according to the good corporate governance. In addition, the company is determined to be a representative of shareholders in doing a transparent business with reliable accounting and financial systems. In ensuring every shareholder being treated equally in various issues related to the company, for example the right in attending the meeting and casting a vote in the meeting of shareholders, giving a proxy, providing information in advance on a timely manner in order for shareholders to use in decision making, the proper meeting venue and time allocation, disclosure of information on the interests and rights to share opinions freely in the meeting, and so on. Besides, the Board of Directors will not take any actions that may cause conflicts with the benefits of the company, seek for own benefits, and disclose confidential information to outsiders.
Employees : The company has given importance to every employee who is regarded as a part of the company. Therefore, it has determined a policy related to various issues that concern employees, for example salary, bonus welfares on the compensation fund, provident fund, employee uniforms, sports, annual health check-up, and assistance for child delivery, injuries or disabled, etc. In addition, the company provides development for every level of employees in order to increase their potentials necessary for the future business growth. In this regard, the company arranges training courses to enhance knowledge and capability suitable for employees in each department, reasonable and appropriate to the performance of each employee at each level, as well as ensures the transfer of knowledge to employees in that particular department.
Regulations and practices include:
- Ensure the working environments are safe to lives and assets of employees.
- Support and encourage the arrangements of trainings in order to provide knowledge to employees in every aspect suchas development of working potentials, emphasis on the environment, and so on;
- Appointment, removal, rewarding and giving penalty to an employee must be done with equality, sincerity, and on the basis of knowledge, capability, appropriateness, and the actions or practices of the employee;
- Treat employees on the basis of fairness, and give importance to development transfer of knowledge, and employee capability, while providing opportunities to employees on a throughout and regular basis;
- Listen to opinions and suggestions from every level of employees on a fair and equal basis;
- Strictly follow the laws and regulations relevant to employees;
- Manage the operations by avoiding to take any unfair actions that may affect the job security of the employee;
- Treat employees with politeness and give respect to individualism and human dignity;
- Encourage the understanding of the code of conduct and mantle in order to promote behaviors that are in the code of conduct throughout the employees;
- Encourage employees to participate in the determination of working directions as well as the solutions to the problems of the agency and the company as a whole.
- Trainings in the business regulatory system and anti-corruption are set in the new employee’s orientation course.
Compensation and Benefit Policy
- The company will employ and allow all employees to progress in jobs and works with fairness.
- The company will allow all employees to work with their best abilities and will properly compensate to motivate their works as a form of allowance, annual bonus, and overtime.
- The company will offer various compensation in comparable amount to other business in same category according to the position, experience, degrees, and qualification of the employees. The compensation will also depend on the profits of the company in each year. It will depend on the evaluation and competency assessment system as a tool to manage and evaluate by determining KPIs or Key Performance Indicators to measure the success the work of the employees as well.
- The company will provide the fair and proper compensation according to knowledge, responsibility, and the outcome of each employee.
- The company offers benefits for basic needs of the employees such as mutual fund, annual physical examination, compensation fund, uniforms, various compensation, and training to increase professional skills.
Channel for complaints to our employees
The Company provide a channel for complaints to our employees that indicate misconduct and illegal actions by announcing on internal Boards and websites of the company regarding channels for opinions and complaints, including opinion and complaint boxes within the company and only the managing director has a key to open the box, as well as the email of the Managing Director “panom@agecoal.com”
Safety, Occupational Health and Working Environment Policy
The company realizes that employee is one of the success factors, so the company has polices on safety, health, and work environment to prevent and control any accidents that might occur from working. This is one of the main protocols to control and prevent any danger from working, and this is considered as duties and responsibilities of all employees to commit, examine, and investigate for safe workplace.
Human Rights Policy
The Board realizes that the human rights are the foundation of human resource development that will boost up the value of the business. Every employee has a right and a freedom to have a clean and safe workplace without being violated and suppressed in any forms. We require fair employment without involuntarily laboring forcing or child laboring. We fully support the potentials of employee and the values within themselves, which is a part of the organization development in steady and continuous progressing. Hence, the Board of the company determines the policy for all executives and employees to follow in all issues including justice application and sincerity in management of fare, benefits, and interest. The company sets up benefit funds to promote saving so that the employees will have some retirement money. Moreover, the company has the process of submitting a clue and proper appeal for the employees that are unfairly treated. The process is also confidential.
The company insists in fair compensation to the employees including allowance, benefits, and other forms of compensation that are related to the value increasing for the long-term shareholders. The company also manages personnel with justice along with increasing opportunities of the employees in consistent and equal knowledge learning and full competency development. In summary, the company always promotes knowledge learning and potential development of the employees. The employees (including new employees) ranging to Managements had participated in 15 training courses within the company. The number of hours for the training was separated to Managements (7 persons: 57 hours, 30 minutes) and to the employees (2,288 hours). The total number was 2,345 hours and 30 minutes. For the new employees, the company prepared additional training courses to increase the knowledge by having orientation for 6 hours for them to learn about the origin of the company, the business of the company, labor information, and on-the-job training. They will learn the information of the organization and the nature of their work and will prepare them for the real work. Also, the company has trained the employees on regular basis every year to increase skills and expertise in the associated courses about the work they are responsible for (on average of at least 12 hours per person per year).
Customers : The company is determined to provide goods and services that are of good quality and standards. The inspection of goods quality is ensured, the delivery of goods is accurate and in-time. Contracts, agreements and conditions made with customers must be fulfilled in a transparent and fair manner. The various forms of customer demand in each industry will be attended by having an agency to contact customers as well as giving recommendations and listening to suggestions or opinions from customers and the confidentiality issue is promised.
Regulations and practices include:
- Arrange a system that takes care, keeps, and protects securities or assets that customers entrust the company to look after in a concise and appropriate manner;
- Maintain sufficient amounts of various types of assets according to the officially determined laws and rules in order to create customer confidence;
- Do not call for, request or receive monies, gifts, prizes, or other rewards from customers or other persons except the acceptance from traditional giving;
- Adhere and maintain honesty as a principle in running a business;
- Follow standards that relate to running the company’s business and are generally accepted;
- Run a business legally and according to official regulations, and will not provide assistance, encourage or support any illegal activities or transactions;
- Monitor occurring development and changes, initiate innovations in order to build customer satisfaction, and exert all the efforts in the work;
- Professionally apply knowledge, capability, expertise, carefulness and attention to produce quality products to customers;
- Concisely and properly keep and take care of confidential information of customers, and such confidential information will not be disclosed to other persons except being granted consent from the customers or implemented according the law;
- Communicate information on products or services of the company to ensure correct understanding of customers.
Clients : The company takes into account the importance of its clients. The company purchases goods and services from clients according to the trading conditions as well as ensures its implementation following the laws, rules and contracts made with the clients in a fair and transparent manner. In addition, the company gives importance to the on-time payment for goods. Nonetheless, the company has a system of selecting clients that are reliable, responsible to the society and environment so as to ensure that customers get goods and services of specified standard quality.
Practices include:
- Do not call for, receive, pay any trade benefits to clients with dishonesty, and strictly follow the contracts, agreements and conditions made with clients. In case of failure to follow the conditions, the company will notify clients in advance at the first instance so that a solution to the problem at hand is jointly considered under the principle of reasonableness;
- Appropriately control or prevent in case there may be conflicts in benefits related to the business running, and will not seek for benefits in an illegal manner or opposing to official regulations;
- Do not take any actions related to the violation of intellectual property, encourage Managements and employees to efficiently use resources and assets of the company, use goods and services with the legal copyrights, and discourage the use of goods and services that is related to the violation of intellectual property;
- Strictly follow the trade conditions and agreements in order to create standard trades both with domestic and foreign clients.
Intellectual properties and copyright
The Board has the policy to follow the regulations on intellectual property and copyright. To use the works or the data from external source for internal use in the company, we have to inspect to be confident that we will not violate intellectual property or copyright of others.
Creditors : The company has determined the conditions and practices with creditors who are financial institutions that provide financial support to the company appropriately with the business situations. Regarding this, the company has taken care of the financial situations of the company to ensure that the company can control the financial risk involved and follow the borrowing conditions according to the agreements.
Competitors : The company behaves according to the rules of fair competition and bases on the fair returns on both sides. In addition, the company avoids using dishonest methods to destroy its trade competitors and does not seek for its trade competitors’ confidential information using dishonest or inappropriate ways, as well as do not destroy its trade competitors’ reputation by accusing without the actual facts.
The Communities and society : The company is well aware of creating understanding and trusts from communities surrounding the locations of warehouses and sorting houses, thus it has set up a community relation on the environment and society unit responsible for various issues, particularly responsibilities related to conservations, protection and solving of the environmental problems that may arise to the surrounding communities and nearby the company, and taking care of complaints from members of the communities. In addition, the company has supported the public part of the surrounding communities such as giving donations to build a school, donating computers to government offices, supporting religious activities, supporting activities of school students and the elderly, and so on as the opportunity arises. In the private front, the company corporates with client companies in arranging revenue earning projects for members of the communities, as an example. Moreover, in the recruitment, the company will emphasize potential employees who have domiciles in the surrounding areas in order to create jobs for the locality and provide support to those living nearby which will result in revenue and business prosperity in those communities.
Community service and development
The company understands the importance of strong community and society. The steady development plays a critical role in extending the growth of the business. Thus, the company has the policy to determine the regulations on preventing effects to the community where the company is located and to include the participation and the supporting the activities in all levels such as government, local organization, and community. The company has developed the community under the principle of CSR-DIW of Department of Industrial Works, which is the project to promote all sizes and levels of industry to operate under the standard of the Department of Industrial Works. The issues are the responsibilities of industry operators to society, networking for quality social activities, exchanging ideas, experiences, and expertise for steady development. The company has the activities to support the community as the followings. 1) Educational activities 2) cultures and tradition promoting activities 3) professional supporting activities 4) public good and service activities (the details can be found in the topic of responsibility to society with sub topic of responsibility to society and environment 2015).
The environment : The company is well aware of the environmental issues that may arise as a result of running the business. Since the company runs a business that involves importing, screening, and selling coals, the potential effects inevitably include dust diffusion in the areas of the sorting houses and warehouses, port, and the routes in which trucks use to deliver goods to customers. Therefore, the company has determined various measures against noise, air, and water pollutions. Within the 3 locations of warehouses and sorting houses, namely Samut Sakhon Branch, Phetchaburi Branch, and Ayutthaya Branch, which are branches that have coal sorting processes, the company has constructed a building covering machinery to ensure they are protected from noise and dust getting out. Regarding the coals resting outside the building, the company covers them with canvases and installs water spray systems in the surroundings in order to prevent dust diffusion. In preventing the water pollution, the company has built a clarifier together with ditches around the warehouses and sorting houses in preventing water from the coals leaking out directly. In the Nakhon Luang branch, the company has built 6-meter ridges and grows more than 20,000 trees in order to conserve the environment. Moreover, in terms of coal transportation, the company uses canvases covering every coal transporting truck tightly and every truck will be inspected before moving out of the port and warehouse area. In the port area where it is used as a coal transferring point to customers or the sorting houses, there will be a water spraying system to prevent dust diffusion as well. The aforementioned policies and measures result from the due attention and importance placed by the company in preventing the potential problems and environmental effects. In addition to these measures, the company also gives importance to improvements and corrections of existing measures in order to increase their effectiveness. And the policy in business running under the environmental standards.
Policy on business operation under the environmental standard
The company intends to operate the business with responsibility to environments with following principles.
- Run the business with the goal to prevent any harm to the environment by following the regulation.
- Aim to develop the process according to the international standard and to consistently evaluate and assess the outcome.
- Indoctrinate and promote employees and others associates to be responsible to the environment.
- Search for opportunity to exchange ideas and experience from collaborating with other units to consistently adjust our process.
Efficient usage of resources
The Board realizes and promotes the indoctrination of efficient usage of resources within the organization by providing knowledge and planning on efficient usage of resources as the followings.
- Plans on resource usage and plan on water reusing in various steps.
- Plans and activities on water and electricity saving.
- Plan on reducing paper uses.
- Activities for natural resource and environment preservation.
- Media for campaign.
Anti-corruption and bribery
The Board realizes and promotes Directors, Managements and all-level employees to operate with good consciousness by determining the policy on anti-corruption and bribery. The company does not allow any form of bribery that will lead to biased treatment or to neglect good cause, leading to bad reputation. The employees are not allowed to present or offer benefits or resources to external part to trigger them for committing to illegal act.
Policy of submitting clues and the protection of whistleblower
In order to achieve Good Corporate Governance policy to give rights to all employees and stakeholders, the Board has determined the channel to communicate with Independent Director and the Audit Committee to inspect via post office or email. This is for the channel in clue submission and other suggestions to investigate the process for submission about illegal act, the correctness of financial statement, deficient internal control system, ethics violation of executives and employees.
The clues, request, and suggestions will be considered and processed accordingly case by case while staying anonymous. The data will be kept confidential, and we have the protection policy on whistleblower to ensure that those will not be affected by clue submission or such acts. In the case that the company has to reveal such information, the company will only limit necessary information by realizing the safety and the damage to the requesters and the whistleblower.