code-of-conduct
Preamble
We are aware of the role we play in society and our responsibility towards our employees, customers, partners and shareholders. The BRITEC code of conduct provides the basic principles and rules for acting with integrity within the BRITEC and in all dealings with business partners and the public.
Basic understanding of socially responsible company management
Conflicts of interest
We act in the best interests of BRITEC. We use BRITEC’s property and information only for proper and legitimate business purposes. We ensure that any decisions we make on behalf of BRITEC are independent of, and not influenced by, personal interests. We avoid external engagements or activities that might interfere with our responsibilities to BRITEC or harm the company’s reputation.
Working environment
We treat each other with respect, honestly, openly and fairly. We value the work of our staff and colleagues and will give them whatever support they need to enable BRITEC to achieve its goals!
Our employees are our key asset. We see ourselves as team players and display tolerance, respect and appreciation towards our colleagues at all times.
BRITEC provides its staff with a safe working environment. It goes without saying that it complies with applicable labor, accident prevention and health requirements in order to prevent accidents, injury and work-related illnesses.
As an expression of our appreciation and as a contribution to employee satisfaction and a successful work-life balance, in addition to fair and performance-related pay we offer flexible working hours and flextime models to better enable our employees to meet the challenges of balancing work and family. The performance and expertise of our staff are crucial, which is why continuing personal and professional development of existing staff and measures to actively further the younger members of our team are a key element of our corporate philosophy. We regard qualification measures for motivated and high-performing employees at all levels as an investment in the future. Systematically furthering and developing our staff, who are our greatest asset, forms an essential component of our human resources policy.
We expect all members of our staff to treat colleagues, business partners and third parties with courtesy and respect. We operate a zero-tolerance policy with regard to all forms of discrimination – whether psychological, physical, sexual or verbal, on the grounds of gender, age, religion, ethnicity, origin, culture, ideology or sexual identity and to any form of harassment or personal attacks.
Compliance with laws
We comply with the applicable laws and other legal requirements of the countries in which we are active. In countries with a weak institutional framework, we check carefully which good business practices from our home country should be used to support responsible company management.
Fair competition and antitrust
We compete fairly, openly and independently. We comply with allᅠlaws protecting fair competition. These laws prohibit agreementsᅠrestricting competition, including between competitors or companiesᅠat different levels of the supply chain. Such laws may impose limits onᅠthe commercial behavior of companies that hold a dominant positionᅠin the market. These laws also require that we seek regulatory approvalᅠfor certain mergers and acquisitions (M&A), including minority stakes,ᅠas well as for certain types of collaboration agreements.
Compliance with these laws ensures that our hard work andᅠinnovation is rewarded, ultimately benefiting our customers. Violationᅠof competition and antitrust laws is a serious matter and could resultᅠin criminal prosecution and grave reputational harm for you and BRITEC.
Import and export
We comply with all national and international import and export rules!
Increasing internationalization of our business as a result of globalization, the harnessing of new markets and the growing complexity in international trade make it imperative to comply with all relevant national and international laws and regulations on customs and export controls (embargo rules). We are always aware that breaches of any type may result in criminal penalties, being barred from simplified export and import procedures and may therefore adversely affect our company’s success; such breaches must be avoided.
Communication
We communicate openly and in a dialogue-orientated manner about the requirements of this Code and its implementation with our employees, customers, suppliers and other interest and demand groups. All the documents are created properly, are not changed or destroyed improperly and are stored correctly. Company secrets and the business information of the partners are treated sensitively and confidentially.
Human rights
BRITEC promotes an organizational culture that supports human rights and seeks to avoid complicity in human rights abuses. We support the principles contained within the International Bill of Human Rights, the United Nations’ Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises, the International Labor Organization (ILO) Core Conventions on Labor Standards, and other applicable laws and principles. We require our suppliers, contractors and other business partners to abide by similar standards in those areas where human rights issues come into play, such as working hours and conditions, discrimination and equality, child labor, fair wages, compulsory or forced labor and modern slavery.
Child Labour
We don’t use, support or benefit from child labour. The minimum age for employment shall not be less than the age of completion of compulsory schooling and, in any case, shall not be less than 15 years. Salary must be paid and the work must be simple tasks of a limited nature and not interfere with the children’s educational responsibilities.
Civic engagement
We contribute to the social and economic development of the country and region by being active and promoting appropriate voluntary activities of our employees.
Privacy and personal data
We acknowledge the importance of personal data protection and believeᅠthat the principles behind data protection strengthen individual rights.ᅠBRITECᅠcollects, uses, stores, handles, transfers and discloses personal dataᅠin accordance with applicable laws and expects suppliers and businessᅠpartners to do the same.
Responsibilities
This Code of Conduct sets out the principles by whichᅠwe perform our daily work. We abide by them withoutᅠexception!
The principles set out in this Code of Conduct form an indispensable elementᅠof our corporate culture. Only by working together can we succeed in puttingᅠthese values into practice and safeguarding them in a sustainable manner.ᅠAll employees, management staff and board members pledge to abideᅠand live by this Code of Conduct.
Key employees and managers at all levels bear a special personal responsibilityᅠfor the employees in their charge. They must act as role models by actingᅠwith integrity in everything they do and say. We expect both them and theᅠexecutive management to lead by example at all times, to ensure complianceᅠwith law and legislation in their respective fields of responsibility by appropriateᅠsupervisory and organizational measures; they must make it clear that anyᅠcompliance breaches will be followed up and may have legal consequences.
BRITECᅠstands for fairness, responsibility and integrity in all its business dealings.ᅠWe expect the same from our business partners. We therefore only doᅠbusiness with partners who abide by generally acknowledged standards ofᅠsocial responsibility, who share our values and principles of integrity and whoᅠcomply with the applicable legal regulations, in particular health and safetyᅠat the workplace, environmental protection and anti-corruption.