The Legal Affairs Office oversees the Human Rights Center, which offers human rights education for employees, manages counseling and investigations of workplace sexual harassment and bullying incidents, and conducts human rights due diligence at both domestic and international business sites. Human rights issues and improvement plans are included in the internal audit performance and planning reports, which are submitted to the Audit Committee of the Board of Directors twice a year.

We have published the Human Rights Management Guidelines on our website, ensuring that all stakeholders can easily access and implement the information. Additionally, we have established the ‘POSCO Human Rights Protection Guidelines’ to serve as the operational standards for activities dedicated to the protection and respect of human rights.

All employees make an annual pledge to adhere to the code of ethics, which includes respect for human rights. The Human Rights Center promotes online and offline education programs and campaigns focused on respect for humanity and human rights for employees.

We implement a comprehensive human rights due diligence process to identify and assess both actual and potential adverse impact on human rights and labor rights for all employees at our domestic and international business sites. This proactive process includes issue response, documentation of response activities, and stakeholder communication to prevent and mitigate these impacts.

Since 2023, we have implemented an online human rights impact assessment comprising 35 questions for local employees at overseas business sites. For sites with low assessment scores, we conducted direct visits to inspect the work environment and held in-depth interviews to identify root causes. We then recommended the establishment and revision of relevant regulations, conducted training and campaigns, and carried out improvement activities.

The company operates a process for handling human dignity violations and grievances experienced by employees and stakeholders across all business activities. Reports can be made anonymously through the Unethical Conduct Reporting Center, and the Human Rights Center promptly provides responses to the received reports. Depending on the case, personnel actions may be taken through an audit

We ensure anonymity and secure procedural transparency in the grievance handling process, strictly prohibiting any disadvantage or secondary harm to the reporter and the victim. We thoroughly respect human rights in the grievance handling process by institutionalizing punitive measures for any violations

We have established a step-by-step response process for human rights violation incidents. In particular, for cases that require victim remedy and prevention of secondary harm, such as incidents of sexual harassment and sexual violence, we make victim protection and swift resolution of the incident our top priorities.

• Confidentiality Agreement: Mandatory signing by all investigation participants
• Victim Protection Measures: Legal and medical/counseling support at the request of the victim
  Legal Support: An in-house dedicated lawyer is assigned, and external legal representation is available upon request
  Medical Support: Coverage of medical expenses for illnesses caused by violations of sexual ethics
  Counseling Support: Support for psychological counseling programs by professional counselors at the Mindfulness Center
• Codification into Company Regulations: Establishing victim remedy and prevention of secondary harm as company policies
  The company strictly disciplines those who conceal workplace bullying or sexual harassment or cause secondary harm. If the position holder responsible for victim protection measures causes secondary harm, they are subject to even stricter disciplinary action. Additionally, the position holder of the perpetrator who caused secondary harm can also be held accountable for management responsibility.
• Preventive Management: Mandatory sexual harassment prevention training for all employees and the implementation of a mutual respect pledge for gender equality

We operate online and offline education programs for employees to prevent human rights violations. Specifically, all employees have completed e-learning sexual harassment prevention training in accordance with legal requirements.