Where is the balance?

Carter Holt Harvey was referenced in last week’s article ‘Westpac wins top social responsibility rating’, quoting ACTU president Sharan Burrow saying we were “one of the worst performing companies in employee ratings for the Workplace Practices section of the Reputex survey”. Ms Burrow is obviously very selective in the way she approaches balanced comment, as the ACTU represents only one of five peak bodies who judged the workplace practices section of RepuTex 2003, which rates Australasia’s top 100 organisations on corporate social responsibility. Others groups included the Australian Institute of Management, Standards Australia, Diversity@Work and Monash University Accident Research Centre.

The facts are: in the workplace relations category, Carter Holt Harvey achieved a rating of 33 (W3/satisfactory), improving from 49th in 2002, and Carter Holt Harvey’s overall CSR rating was recognised as 29 (A rating/satisfactory), improving from 50th in 2002.

Whilst Carter Holt Harvey ranks in the top third of Australasian companies in workplace practices, we remain focused on continuous performance improvement and being recognised as one of Australasia’s largest and most responsible employers. The ACTU and Ms Burrow chose to take a very selective and misleading view of Carter Holt Harvey’s Workplace Practices and in doing so, ignored the facts and what has been a significant improvement in our rating.