Summary

On 26 February 2018, the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre wrote to Jacobs Engineering Group, inviting the company to share information on its human rights due diligence following its acquisition of CH2M on 18 December 2017. Jacobs' Chairman & CEO, Steve Demetriou, responded in a letter on 6 March 2018. The letter is summarised and link to in full below.

Background and invitation

CH2M has previously been linked to allegations of labour rights abuse in Qatar through its business partnerships following its appointment as the programme management consultant for the 2022 FIFA World Cup, including:

• Revealed: Qatar’s World Cup ‘slaves’ (link)
• CH2M Hill: Speak out for Qatar’s modern slaves (link)

Since these revelations, CH2M has taken concrete action to advance worker welfare in the construction sector, developing a Worker Welfare Policy and launching Building Responsibly, a new industry group to protect the rights and welfare of workers worldwide.

Given CH2M’s leadership on workers’ rights, and in light of Jacobs acquisition of the company, we wanted to give Jacobs an opportunity to provide a public statement on its approach to human rights within the engineering and construction sector. In particular, we asked the company to clarify:

1. How and to what extent do you consider human rights in your business relationships and decision-making, including whether you have a human rights policy statement (or equivalent)?
2. Do you require subcontractors and suppliers to submit to the same standards on human rights and if so, what measures do you have in place to ensure compliance within your supply chain/on the projects you manage?
3. Your role on CH2M’s ongoing and recently awarded projects and how you plan to incorporate human rights
4. How and to what extent you plan to absorb CH2M’s leading worker welfare policies, and to continue to build on its work with the Building Responsibly group?