Shell employees can raise grievances through formal procedures, staff forums, confidential advisers and a global helpline available 24 hours a day. Staff are free to join a union wherever permitted by national law. According to our annual internal questionnaire of senior country representatives, an estimated 12% of staff, in countries where that information is legally available, were union members in 2006. See the Performance Data page for more on this data.

We are committed not to exploit children, through direct employment or indirectly through joint ventures, contractors or suppliers. According to the same internal questionnaire, at the end of 2006, Shell companies in 95% of countries where we operate had procedures to prevent child labour. Of the 5% who didn’t, nearly all were in countries with well-enforced laws on child labour. The same questionnaire indicated that Shell companies in around 90% of countries had procedures in place to prevent the use of forced labour.