6.1 Companies proclaiming CR policies

Policy on CR

Almost half of the companies claimed to have a policy on CR. In overall comparison PSUs were the highest in having a CR policy as compared to MNCs and Indian companies, with around 58 percent of the PSUs having a policy on CR, while only 46 percent of the Indian companies had a policy on CR.

Explanatory Note : Around 45 percent of the companies fall short of any policy on CR. On asking the reasons for not having a policy on CR, the major reasons cited were that ‘CR was practiced very seriously and efficiently so they did not require a written policy’, ‘organisation too small to have a separate CR policy’ and ‘there being no requirement for such a policy’. Interestingly, 47 percent of the companies did not respond to this query or said that there were no particular reasons for not having a written CR policy. Also in 48 percent of the companies ‘HR Department’ was responsible for the implementation of CR policy. The other departments mentioned were ‘Administration Department’ (15 %), ‘CSR Department’ (5 %) and ‘Corporate Affairs’ (5 %).

A comparison of companies with a written policy on CR across the last round of survey revealed that the proportion of companies with a written policy on CR increased significantly in the current round as compared to the last round of survey.

6.2 Issues covered in CR Policy

6.2.1 Labour or Employees

This section looks at the policy elements covering labour and employee related issues.

On an average, close to 40 percent of the companies reported of having policy elements that covered issues related to labour, employees, etc. It was also seen that the issues of ‘health and safety (86%)’, ‘providing equal opportunities (63%)’ and ‘compensation (58%)’ were taken most seriously by the companies. It should also be noted that the policy for disease covered HIV, AIDS, Malaria, Tuberculosis, etc. Although issues of bonded labour and child labour are pertinent in the society yet very few companies address these issues in the CR policies.