A pilot project was launched in February last year.

Acknowledging that there were concerns over the safety and health of workers due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the company’s chief sustainability officer, Simon Lord, said this should not derail the focus of companies on other equally pertinent human rights issues at the workplace.

“Providing our employees with access to voice their grievances is crucial to protecting their rights without fear of retribution.

“It is part of our commitment to upholding basic, fundamental human rights and providing decent work as outlined in our human rights charter,” he said in a statement, adding that any grievances must be managed “effectively and efficiently”.

Lord said the helpline is multilingual given a majority of Sime Darby Plantation’s foreign workers hail from Indonesia, India, Bangladesh and Nepal.

He said cultural empathy and overcoming language barriers are important in addressing human rights issues. In this regard, all of the workers’ recruitment materials are translated into different languages.

“Employment contracts are also translated and personally explained to foreign workers in their respective languages during recruitment, upon induction and upon contract signing,” he said.

The rolling out of the second phase of the helpline comes a month after Sime Darby Plantation was accused by Liberty Shared of using child and forced labour on its plantations that supply palm oil products to US food and cosmetic companies.

The allegations were made when the US-based group filed a petition to ban the import of palm oil produced by the company.

The company denied the allegations.