SK D&D supports and adheres to domestic and international standards and principles related to human rights, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, and the conventions of the International Labor Organization.

To actively promote and protect the human rights of all stakeholders, including employees, customers, local communities/environment, and shareholders, SK D&D revised its Human Rights Policy in 2024 and made it publicly available throughout the organization and to the public. The Policy applies to our employees, domestic and overseas affiliates, and our business partners are also encouraged to understand and put into practice our principles of respect for human rights. In addition, we regularly monitor global human rights standards and conduct human rights impact assessments to incorporate key issues identified into the revision process. The recently updated version of SK D&D’s Human Rights Policy is disclosed externally after consultation with the relevant departments, reporting to management, and approval by the CEO.

Human Rights Policy

To systematically implement human rights management, SK D&D has established and operates a human rights management governance framework based on a reporting system to the Board of Directors. The human rights working-level departments consist of the ESG Part and the P&C Part (People & Culture Part), which collaborate with the Internal Control Part as needed.

The ESG Part develops a comprehensive group-wide human rights management system, regularly reviews and revises SK D&D’s Human Rights Policy, and conducts human rights impact assessments across the company's value chain to identify human rights risks and corresponding improvement initiatives.

The P&C Part executes improvement initiatives identified through human rights impact assessments, provides feedback on Policy revisions, and conducts employee training on human rights (including topics such as prevention of sexual harassment and workplace bullying). It also collaborates with the Internal Control Part under the SK Autonomous-Responsible Management Support Group for ethical management, ensuring the implementation of procedures to protect and remedy reporters in handling human rights grievances.

The plans and outcomes of human rights management activities are ultimately reported by each working-level department to the ESG Committee, which monitors group-wide human rights management performance, including major human rights risks and improvement tasks.

SK D&D conducts annual human rights training for all employees to internalize a culture of human rights management and minimize human rights risks. In 2023, we enhanced the effectiveness of these efforts through diverse media channels such as human rights campaigns and group-wide messaging. We provided legally mandated training including anti-sexual harassment, workplace bullying prevention, and disability awareness improvement. In addition to legal requirements, we conducted offline human rights training sessions on corporate human rights management twice a year in 2023 to promote awareness of human rights respect among employees.

SK D&D operates various grievance channels to prevent and address human rights-related issues for internal and external stakeholders. We utilize the Management Development Council, an internal reporting channel, and a communication hotline to strengthen human rights protection for our internal employees. Additionally, through the SK group-wide online reporting channel 'SK Ethical Management,' we aim to identify and resolve human rights issues of all stakeholders, including employees, business partners, and local communities.

Reports may include issues such as verbal abuse, assault, sexual harassment, work exclusion, and inappropriate work directives as well as human rights violations like bullying of suppliers and disregard for the socially disadvantaged. Reports can be submitted anonymously or with identification, with strict confidentiality maintained for both the reporter’s identity and the content. Moreover, we have established procedures to protect reporters from retaliation or discrimination, and we ensure that the handling procedures for their reports are transparently disclosed.

Disciplinary measures and corrective actions for reported issues are deliberated on and decided by the HR Committee. In 2024, we strengthened the disciplinary standards for addressing human rights violations. Following decisions by the HR Committee, the Grievance Committee discloses the results of report handling to all employees at least once a year, aiming to minimize secondary harm, and conducts monitoring and additional measures to prevent recurrence.

In 2024, we introduced the 'Sotong Hotline', an online internal reporting system, that minimizes direct contact with employees and allows them to report through an external third-party agency (Jipyong LLC). This initiative aims to enhance the transparency and objectivity of our procedures for addressing human rights issues that victims may find difficult to report on their own, such as sexual harassment or workplace bullying. Incidents reported through the Sotong Hotline undergo objective investigation by a third-party organization and are forwarded to the relevant personnel. Serious incidents may involve an external investigative agency.