Nr. 2016 | 2017
Online Sustainability Report

Compliance

Our business activities around the world are subject to various laws, internal guidelines, and self-imposed standards of conduct. These serve as the basis for our corporate responsibility.

Compliance is a matter of course for us: responsible and legally compliant.

TOLERANCE AND FAIRNESS DO NOT TOLERATE ANY FORM OF DISCRIMINATION.


RESPONSIBLE CORPORATE GOVERNANCE
Our business activities around the world are subject to various laws, internal guidelines, and self-imposed standards of conduct. These serve as the basis for our corporate responsibility.

COMPLIANCE PROGRAM
Rigorously observing all the relevant laws, rules, and voluntary commitments is a top priority for OTTO FUCHS. We have put in place a compliance program that establishes the parameters needed in order to protect our company and our employees from misconduct, promote legally compliant conduct, and minimize risks. This system is founded on our code of conduct, which is mandatory for all OTTO FUCHS employees irrespective of their responsibilities or hierarchical position. Schüco International KG constitutes an exception here, as it has adopted its own compliance program.

BINDING BASIS: THE OTTO FUCHS CODE OF CONDUCT
Our code of conduct defines our aspiration to conduct ourselves ethically, as represented by our corporate values of integrity, honesty, respect, responsibility, social awareness, appreciation, and openness. These values give all our employees guidance regarding responsible conduct in day-to-day business. The code also encompasses our principles and compliance guidelines for fair competition, anti-corruption and the prevention of money laundering, the handling of conflicts of interest, how to behave in social networks, and data protection. A commitment to observing environmental, labor, and social standards is likewise an integral part of our guidelines. The code of conduct and supplementary guidelines can be found on the intranet. The standards of correct conduct are explained to the employees using concrete and easily understandable examples.

OTTO FUCHS respects globally accepted human rights and rejects all forms of forced or child labor.

We do not tolerate any form of discrimination, harassment, coercion, or verbal attacks. Treating one another with respect is a top priority for us and we actively espouse tolerance and fairness.

We recognize the rules of fair and open competition. All contact with other companies which seeks to prevent, restrict, or distort competition or which results in any of these is therefore prohibited. No competition violations came to light in the reporting period.


COMPLIANCE WITHIN DAY-TO-DAY BUSINESS
We provide our employees with comprehensive information regarding the importance of compliance and specifically work toward making our obligations comprehensible and tangible. The CEO and the company’s executives have a particular role to play here. They are responsible for ensuring that all the relevant rules are observed and that there are no violations of the law which could have been prevented on the basis of mandatory notification and supervision. We also see it as our responsibility to help our employees observe the rules. Employee training is therefore an integral part of our compliance program. We also encourage all employees to bring circumstances to our attention which suggest that laws or internal rules are being violated. We have appointed compliance contacts and an external ombudsman to this end, to whom the employees and business partners can turn. Everything reported is looked into with the utmost care while respecting the rights of everyone involved. The compliance team is also at everyone’s disposal to answer any questions regarding the code of conduct. No significant fines were imposed in the reporting period as a result of laws or regulations being violated.


INTEGRATED COMPLIANCE ORGANIZATION
The OTTO FUCHS compliance program is overseen by the Chief Compliance Officer. He reports directly to the CEO, who has ultimate responsibility for compliance. Additionally, there are local compliance officers at the company’s various sites that the employees can contact. We will check that our voluntary commitments are being observed by means of targeted monitoring. If there are any indications that our guidelines or voluntary commitments are not being adequately heeded or implemented, we will look into the circumstances and will specifically work on achieving improvements.

02 - CORPORATE STRATEGY AND SUSTAINABILITY MANAGEMENT04 - STAKEHOLDER DIALOG