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Ethics & Integrity

Ethics & Integrity

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Overview

We’re in the Business of Decency

We seek to uphold the highest standards of fair and ethical practice in every action we take, every day, across all of our locations. We do this in keeping with our mission, vision and values as a company.


Our culture is reinforced by our company ‘constitution’. At the heart of this sits the Code of Ethics, which provides guidance on how we expect employees to conduct themselves as they go about their daily work and is a useful tool in preventing irresponsible or illegal conduct.

 

This is supported by our Group Compliance Policies (including an Anti-Bribery Policy and Antitrust Code of Conduct, among others) designed to ensure adherence from our employees, suppliers, business partners, sales agents, sub-contractors and distributors on the Prysmian way of doing business.

Our Code of Ethics and compliance policies live and evolve with the development of our business in the competitive world. We continuously evaluate all current laws and regulations relating to these areas and amend our policies accordingly, in line with the latest best practices. We also take the opinions of our stakeholders into account on these matters and consider their requests relating to legality and propriety. We also seek to support our ethical conduct with various initiatives, including the Prysmian Group Helpline program.

Updates to any of our policies are broadcast across the Group and made readily available to all employees and associated companies.

You can learn more about each of our ethics and integrity policies on the dedicated pages below.

Our Code, policies and practices

Prysmian’s Code of Ethics is the basis of our company constitution. It is a charter of rights and moral duties and defines the ethical and social responsibilities of every person in the organisation.

The Code consists of three pillars:

  1. Ethics in business activities: the pursuit of profit does not justify improper behaviour. Profit must be achieved with respect for the rules and our competitors, and by fair and transparent actions that anticipate and meet market needs, thus generating value for distribution to all stakeholders.
  2. Ethics in internal relations: we are aware of the importance of our ties with employees. We strengthen these by respecting their rights, expectations and needs, and by facilitating improvement in their living conditions and professional growth. The individual is central to our future development as a company.
  3. Ethics in environmental and social matters: given our strong belief in the principle of sustainable development, we operate worldwide with respect for the environment and local communities; at the same time, we encourage the responsible use of resources and promote local projects designed to enhance well-being in the areas concerned.

All companies within the Prysmian Group agree to comply strictly with the Code of Ethics, applicable regulations, and the rules and procedures adopted by the Group.
 

Our Code of Ethics complies with international best practices and adopts the principles embodied in the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Fundamental Conventions of the International Labour Organization (ILO).


Supporting our Code of Ethics

 

Integrity is a key value of the Prysmian Group. In order to ensure it is upheld at all levels within the company, we have established a compliance organisation to monitor observance of our Code of Ethics and other relevant compliance policies.

The organisation comprises the following roles:

  • Chief Compliance Officer: manages all compliance policies and procedures, including the Code of Ethics, while reporting to the Control and Risks Committee and the Chief Executive Officer of the Group.
  • Local Compliance Officers: present at every Prysmian Group company to ensure the consistent implementation of compliance policies.

 

Raising employee awareness

 

With the goal of ensuring employee awareness of all our policies relating to ethical conduct, we introduced an e-learning module on our intranet. Completion of this module is obligatory for all Prysmian management and staff.

New versions of this on-line application are made available on the Group’s intranet and staff are notified when these updates are available.

With this approach, we aim to keep our employees continually engaged with our policies and stimulate greater understanding of their importance to us a company.

Download our full Code of Ethics

 

The elimination of corruption and unfair competition is taken extremely seriously by the Prysmian Group. To that end, the compliance policies enshrined in our Code of Conduct include an Anti-Bribery Policy and an Antitrust Code of Conduct. Both documents are published on the corporate intranet where all employees may access them and any updates are communicated across the company.

 

The Anti-Bribery Policy
 

This policy prohibits the corruption of both public officials and private individuals. It requires all Prysmian employees to comply with its rules and regulations and, if the former are less restrictive, all the anti-corruption legislation in force in the countries in which they work or are active.

Under this policy, no employee may make, promise to make, offer or approve the payment of anything of value, whether directly or indirectly, for the benefit of public officials, unless in compliance with all current laws and to the extent expressly allowed by Group Policy.

For this purpose, the term ‘public officials’ means the employees of a public agency or company controlled by the government. This includes commercial entities, international public organisations, political parties or party officials, or candidates for public office.

Download our full Anti-Bribery Policy

 

The Antitrust Code of Conduct

 

This code describes the issues relating to the application of Italian and EU competition policy with regard to agreements and the abuse of dominant positions. The specific situations arising must be assessed against this framework on a case-by-case basis.

Download our full Antitrust Code of Conduct
 

We strongly encourage partially owned affiliates and third parties to adopt similar policies and practices, especially if they are located, or do business, in a country that has signed the OECD Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions.

Prysmian Group’s global presence (50 countries, 82 plants and about 30,000 employees) leads to great challenges, including the ability to practice honesty and integrity in fulfilling its responsibilities and to comply with different applicable laws and regulations. As a company that operates in an ethically and legally correct manner, Prysmian’s image and reputation is inseparable from the appropriate conduct of each of its employees. Given the strategic relevance of our reputation, the Group has adopted over time the following measures, with the purpose of setting and maintaining a strong compliance culture across the organization:  

 

  • The Code of Ethics, which represents the bedrock of our global compliance framework, setting the basic principles of compliance behaviors.  
  • The Group Compliance Function, set up by the Board in 2016, whose mission is to carry out the design and maintenance of the Group Compliance Programs.  
  • This Global Compliance Policy, approved by the Board, that introduces the Group Compliance Governance Model and describes key processes and elements of our global Compliance Management System.  
  • Compliance Policies and Procedures, which complete the Code of Ethics and Global 
  • Compliance Policy by addressing specific compliance topics and related rules.  

    The above global compliance framework shall be reviewed and updated when needed, considering Prysmian’s business environment. 
    To view and download the full policy, click here.