What are your policies on workplace rights, with regards to discrimination, child labour and working hours?

We take our responsibilities to our employees seriously, offering training and benefits to all UK staff, of which 95 per cent are on permanent contracts. Our business here in the UK is actually made up of two companies working seamlessly together: Coca-Cola Great Britain, which is the subsidiary of The Coca-Cola Company and is the marketing and brand-owning side of things, and Coca-Cola Enterprises Inc, which is the manufacturer and bottler of all our products. Coca-Cola Great Britain employs around 120 people in one office in London, while CCE employs around 4,500 people in 20 sites across the country. Diversity is very important for both companies, and our employment policies and practices have been developed to protect against discrimination and ensure fair treatment for all.

The Coca-Cola Company does business in over 200 countries around the world and employs a very diverse group of people. We have never claimed to be perfect, but with our global workplace rights policy and supplier guiding principles in place, we work with our bottling partners, suppliers, employees and trade unions around the world to ensure that any allegations regarding how our people are treated are thoroughly investigated, and where we find abuses we act upon them. As part of our continuous work in this area, in 2005 we reached an unprecedented agreement with the International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers' Associations (IUF), which had criticised our practices in the past. In the agreement, we established an ongoing working relationship with the IUF, including meeting twice a year to discuss workplace guidelines and issues.