Preventing Corruption and Bribery

We explicitly commit ourselves to the UN Global Compact’s Ten Principles. They include the principles on labor standards, namely upholding the freedom of association (Principle 3), eliminating all forms of forced labor (Principle 4), abolishing child labor (Principle 5) and eliminating discrimination (Principle 6). We also make commitments to our customers to uphold these same labor standards. The sanctions we impose for any proven misconduct in personnel matters are determined by the seriousness of the incident. There were no incidents of note in the reporting year.

Corruption and bribery have no place in our business model. Our principles on this are contained in our Code of Conduct and all WACKER employees are required to follow them. The Chief Compliance Officer reports directly to the president and CEO on compliance issues. The full Executive Board is informed on a quarterly basis of any relevant compliance issues in the Group. In urgent cases, the Executive Board is informed immediately. One principal objective is to ensure that neither the company nor its Executive Board or Supervisory Board are exposed to liability risk.

Compliance training raises employees’ awareness of the relevant risks and informs them of rules of conduct applicable to their daily work. It is compulsory for all WACKER Group employees. Whistleblower hotlines provide a means for employees and business partners to report any breaches anonymously.

According to Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), WACKER generates just under half its sales in countries with a low or very low risk of corruption.