To comply with the 2017 French law concerning the Corporate Duty of Care, Schneider Electric has implemented a plan to identify health and safety risks and prevent violations of human rights and environmental damage.
This plan applies to the operations of the company and of the companies it controls, as well as to the operations of the subcontractors or suppliers with whom it maintains an established commercial relationship.
A dedicated governance body, the Duty of Care Committee, was established in May 2017.
Duty of Care
Maxime Goualin, Business Ethics & Human Rights Manager, Schneider Electric
Since 2004, we’ve been encouraging suppliers to commit to a sustainable development initiative, and since 2012, Schneider Electric has been encouraging its suppliers to make progress according to the ISO 26000 guidelines. Schneider Electric’s Supplier Guide Book includes a large section on expectations with regard to sustainable development in the following five areas: health and safety, human rights, ethics, the environment, and sustainable purchasing.
At Schneider Electric, we encourage our employees to conduct business ethically by adopting a zero-tolerance policy toward corruption and other unethical practices. To promote and develop integrity in business activities, various anti-corruption initiatives have been created or reinforced over the last few years, both in terms of prevention and control.
This year, we’ve launched a new anti-corruption e-learning program which is mandatory for employees in the most exposed functions (finance, sales, and procurement) and we are tracking the results through the Schneider Sustainability Impact. In addition, we launched an anti-corruption certification process for our Middle-East zone with the consulting company ETHIC Intelligence and are expected to be certified in 2018.
We are also continuing our partnership with Transparency International France, a leading NGO which aims to stop corruption and promote transparency, responsibility, and integrity at all levels and across all sectors.
Updated regularly, our Principles of Responsibility document details Schneider Electric’s commitments to its employees, partners, shareholders, planet, and society. The next update is scheduled for later this year. The document aligns with the 10 principles of the Global Compact of the United Nations, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and standards issued by the International Labor Organization and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
The Responsibility & Ethics Dynamics (R&ED) program includes processes and tools to foster employee compliance with our Principles of Responsibility. The program provides a safe, welcoming way for employees to help ensure compliance, and provides a structure of accountability by fostering reporting of non-compliance.
When an employee is a victim of or witness to an event that touches on ethical issues, a professional alert system has been available since 2012 to report information on such events. This system ensures the confidentiality of the exchanges and protects the anonymity of the whistleblower (unless there is legislation to the contrary).
ethical alerts were escalated in the R&ED line system in 2016
of these alerts were related to potential violations of our code of conduct concerning integrity in financial matters
of these alerts were related to allegations of discrimination, harassment, or unfair treatment of employees
of these alerts were related to potential violation of other policies