Unilever 2012 Annual Report Download - page 145

142 Unilever Annual Report and Accounts 2012Financial statements
FURTHER STATUTORY AND OTHER INFORMATION UNILEVER PL
Drectors’ Report of PL
Drectors’ Report of PL
For the purposes of the UK ompanies Act 2006, the Directors’
Report of Unilever PLC for the year ended 31 December 2012
comprises this and the following page and the information
contained in the Report of the Directors on pages 2 to 81 which
includes the company’s position on environment and corporate
responsibility matters, Dividends on page 105, Principal group
companies and non-current investments on pages 130 and
131, and Treasury risk management on pages 116 to 120. The
information required to be given pursuant to Section 992 ofthe UK
Companies Act 2006 is covered elsewhere in this AnnualReport.
The Directors’ Report has been drawn up and presented in
accordance with and in reliance upon English company law and
liabilities of the Directors in connection with that report shall be
subject to the limitations and restrictions provided by such law.
Under the UK Companies Act 2006, a safe harbour limits the
liability of Directors in respect of statements in and omissions
from the Directors’ Report. Under English Law the Directors
would be liable to Unilever (but not to any third party) if the
Directors’ Report contained errors as a result of recklessness
or knowing misstatement or dishonest concealment of
a material fact, but would not otherwise be liable.
Busness revew
The UK Companies Act 2006 requires Unilever PLC to set out in
thisreport a fair review of the business of the Group during the
financial year ended 31 December 2012 including a description
ofthe principal risks and uncertainties facing the Group and an
analysis of the position of the Group’s business at the end of
thefinancial year, known as a ‘Business review’.
The information that fulfils the current Business review
requirements can be found on the following pages of this Annual
Report which are incorporated into this report by reference:
• a description of the outlook of the Group and the principal
risks and uncertainties facing theGroup – see pages 36 to 41;
• the development and performance of the Group’s business
during the year – see pages 28 to 35;
• the position of the Group’s business at the end of the
year–seepages 32 and 88;
• key performance indicators – see pages 6, 29 to 31, 34 and 35;
• other key indicators – see page 6;
• main trends and factors likely to affect the future development,
performance and position of the Group – see page 36;
• environmental matters and policy, including the impact of the
Group’s business on the environment – see pages 6 and 8 to 27;
• employee matters and policy – see pages 24 to 27 and
also below;
• social and community matters and policy – see pages
6 and 8 to 27;
• a statement that the Directors do not believe that there are
anycontracts or other arrangements which are essential
to the business of the Group is given on page 52; and
• an explanation of the business model and the Group’s
Strategy for delivering its objectives – see pages 8 and 9.
Employee nvolvement and communcaton
Unilever’s UK companies maintain formal processes to inform,
consult and involve employees and their representatives. We
recognise collective bargaining on a number of sites and engage
with employees via the Sourcing Unit Forum including officer
representation from the three recognised trade unions. Our sites
use tools such as Total Productive Maintenance which rely heavily
on employee involvement, contribution and commitment.
A National Consultative Council covering employees and
management representatives exists to provide a forum for
discussing issues relating to the United Kingdom. A European
Works Council, embracing employee and management
representatives from countries within Europe, has been
in existence for several years and provides a forum for
discussing issues that extend across national boundaries.
The company carries out regular and wide-ranging monitoring
surveys providing valuable insight into employee views, attitudes
and levels of engagement.
The Directors’ Reports of the United Kingdom operating
companies contain more details about how they have
communicated with their employees during 2012.
Equal opportuntes and dversty
Under the umbrella of our Code of Business Principles, Unilever
aims to ensure that applications for employment from people with
disabilities, and other under-represented groups, are given full
and fair consideration and that such people are given the same
training, development and prospects as other employees. Every
effort is also made to retrain and support employees who become
disabled while working within the Group.
Unilever continues to review ways in which greater diversity can
be achieved in recruitment and selection. We have put in place
policies which promote the achievement of diversity in our
business and we review these regularly. For example, Unilever UK
provides policies on home working, flexible working, maternity
and paternity leave, child care provision and career breaks, which
help us to meet the objective of greater employee diversity.
hartable and other contrbutons
Unilever collates the cost of its community involvement activities
using the London Benchmarking Group model. The model
recommends the separation of charitable donations, community
investment, commercial initiatives in the community and
management costs relating to the programme of activity.
During 2012 Unilever PLC made a total contribution of £0.6 million
towards community investment.
No donation or contribution was made or expenditure incurred
for political purposes.