1. Preamble
As part of corporate social responsibility e.solutions GmbH (hereinafter referred to as “e.solutions”) is committed to honesty and integrity with respect to their entire business conduct towards employees, customers, suppliers, service providers, competitors and other stakeholders. This includes (without limitation) adherence to any and all applicable laws, rules, regulations and legally binding authority decisions.
e.solutions expects all of its employees in all aspects of their acting as e.solutions’ employee to (i) act with fairness, honesty, responsibility and integrity, (ii) to adhere to any and all applicable laws, rules, regulations and legally binding authority decisions and (iii) be dedicated to corporate social responsibility.
This Code of Conduct highlights essential standards that are consistent with e.solutions’ company values and to which each employee must strictly adhere.
2. Purpose and scope
As outlined in the preamble above, this Code of Conduct highlights important and essential standards that are consistent with e.solutions’ values and which e.solutions expects each employee to observe and adhere to. For clarity, this Code of Conduct applies also to e.solutions’ managing directors and managers. In this context it is to emphasize that e.solutions’ managing directors and managers in their role as manager shall behave by example.
This Code of Conduct shall ensure a standard in e.solutions’ business behaviour and forms an essential integral part of the employment contract. Therefore, each employee is requested to adhere to and comply with this Code of Conduct.
In addition, this Code of Conduct applies to temporary workers and freelancers (e.g. “Arbeitnehmerüberlassung”) and forms an essential integral part of their contracts with e.solutions. In the meaning of this Code of Conduct ‘employee’ includes temporary workers and freelancers as well as any other person acting on behalf of e.solutions respectively whose acting can be attributed to e.solutions as e.solutions’ acting such as (by the way of example) security forces and cleaning workers engaged directly or indirectly by e.solutions.
This Code of Conduct does not replace the Work Rules or other company guidelines, but apply additionally.
3. Corporate Social Responsibility
e.solutions is committed to the ten principles of the United Nations Global Compact in the areas of human rights, labor, the environment and anti-corruption. The respect for freedom and human rights is an essential principle of e.solutions’ business ethics and activities. It is the basis of our operations and business behavior and a pre-requisite for our success.
e.solutions is committed to the principle of sustainability. This includes (without limitation) the responsible – meaning efficient and effective – and sustainable use of available resources, at present and in the future.
4. Compliance with Laws, Rules, Legal Regulations, Jurisdiction and legally binding Authority Decisions
Each employee shall adhere to the applicable laws, rules, regulations, jurisdiction and legally binding authority decisions and – within their dedicated responsibility area - will implement and maintain as competent body suitable measures and processes to ensure such compliance. e.solutions cannot accept breach of compliance.
Compliance includes (without limitation) the following:
(1) Prohibition and combating slavery and human trafficking
e.solutions does not tolerate any form of slavery or human trafficking. Thus, each employee must not exercise, support, allow, accept and/or contribute to slavery and/or human trafficking in any form.
(2) Compliance with antitrust laws, trade practice laws, competition laws, rules and regulations dealing with monopolies, unfair competition and restraints of trade
e.solutions is committed to fair and free market. Thus, each employee shall adhere to applicable anti-trust laws, trade practice laws and any other competition laws, rules and regulations dealing for example (without limitation) with monopolies, unfair competition and restraints of trade, and relationships with competitors and customers.
(3) Prohibition and combating corruption, bribery
e.solutions does not tolerate any form of corruption and/or bribery. Thus, each employee shall adhere to applicable laws and regulations concerning bribery and anti-corruption, including (without limitation) those concerning foreign corrupt practices.
Each employee shall neither be engaged in, support nor tolerate any form of corruption, bribery, theft, embezzlement, extortion or the use of illegal payments, including without limitation, any payment or other benefit conferred on any individual, company or government official, for the purpose of influenc-ing the decision-making process in breach of applicable laws. In particular (without limitation) each em-ployee must not offer or request illegal benefits or illegal favors such as bribe payments, inappropriate gifts and/or inappropriate hospitality for the granting of business opportunities respectively business ad-vantages.
(4) Export and Import Regulations
Neither employee shall breach or support the breach of applicable import and export control laws, in-cluding without limitation, sanctions, embargoes and other laws, regulations, government orders and policies controlling the transmission or shipment of goods, technology and payments.
(5) Money Laundering
Each employee shall adhere to must applicable laws and regulations governing the prevention of money laundering and must not participate in any money laundering activity.
5. Avoiding Conflicts of Interest
Employees are expected to act in the best interest of their company. Private interests and personal consider-ation shall not affect any business decision. Each employee must avoid that private interests or personal consideration influence and/or impact their acting for e.solutions. In the event an employee is or be-comes aware of the risk that private interests or personal considerations may influence and/or impact their acting for e.solutions, the employee shall notify their superior without undue delay. The superior shall imple-ment measures to avoid such conflict of interest (e.g. engage another employee with the certain issue).
6. Respect for Human Rights, Anti-Discrimination and Women’s Empowerment
e.solutions respects human rights and actively promotes their observance. e.solutions is committed to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of the United Nations, which requires each individual, every organ of society and, by extension, economic agents and businesses, to contribute towards the observation of these rights. In addition, e.solutions respects the tripartite Declaration of Principles concerning Multinational Enter-prises and Social Policy of the UN International Labour Organization as well as the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises.
Each employee must treat all individuals with respect and fairness and shall observe any and all human rights set forth, for example, in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of the United Nations and the Tripartite Declaration of Principles concerning Multinational Enterprises and Social Policy of the UN International Labour Organization (ILO), including, but not limited to, the prohibition of forced or child labor, prohibition of evictions for business interests, and - within their responsibility area as competent body - the provision of reasonable wages, social benefits, working hours, freedom of association and other fair working conditions in compliance with any and all applicable laws and regulations.
Each employee shall maintain and support an environment without discrimination, harassment nor retali-ation based on gender, age, race, skin color, ethnicity, culture or national origin, citizenship, religion or religious beliefs, physical or mental disability, veteran status, sexual orientation or any other characteris-tics protected by applicable law.
7. Product Safety, Health, and Environment
e.solutions is committed to the sustainable use of resources and environmental protection, including (without limitation) climate protection.
Each employee shall support e.solutions in these efforts. Each employee shall adhere to applicable laws, rules, regulations and legally binding authority decisions on environmental protection and will appro-priately preserve resources and protect the environment. Thus, each employee shall support e.so-lutions’ commitment and efforts to
8. Data Protection, Confidential Information, Intellectual Property and Plagiarism
Data protection and confidentiality as well as protection of intellectual property rights is of essence.
Each employee shall adhere to applicable laws, rules, regulations and legally binding authority decisions concerning data protection, business secrets and intellectual property.
Each employee shall support that confidential business information or trade secrets gained by virtue of the business activities (hereinafter referred to as “Confidential Information”) is held in confidence and not improperly used or disclosed to third parties other than on a need to know basis. Furthermore, each employee shall support (i) protection of intellectual property rights including (without limitation) e.solu-tions’ intellectual property as well as intellectual property of e.solutions’ customers or any other third party being involved in e.solutions’ projects as confidential information as well as (ii) avoidance of plagiarism.
9. Compliance with this Code of Conduct
This Code of Conduct forms an essential and integral part of the employment contract of each employee. Therefore, compliance with the provisions of this Code of Conduct is of essence. Each employee shall use best efforts to be familiar and to adhere to the values and principles stated in this Code of conduct.
In the event of a need of clarification whether a certain behavior might breach this Code of Conduct e.solutions’ legal department shall be contacted for a legal opinion and advise.
Each employee shall support the effective implementation of and overall compliance with this Code of Conduct at e.solutions. It is also to reference to e.solutions’ in-House training in compliance, data protection, labor law and protection, information security (and other) as well as e.solutions’ compliance process published within SharePoint under section ‘compliance’ as well as on e.solutions’ website at ‘www.esolutions.de’.
e.solutions expects and explicitly encourages each employee to report compliance issues according to e.solutions’ compliance process, in particular (without limitation) to make use of the whistleblower hotline as stated at SharePoint section ‘compliance’. Therefore, each employee shall report violations or suspected violations of this Code of Conduct according to e.solutions compliance process. Contact details are available at e.solutions SharePoint, section ‘compliance’, as well as on e.solutions’ website at ‘www.esolutions.de‘.
In case of significant breaches of this Code of Conduct, e.solutions reserves the right for appropriate measures which include a warning, termination of employment and/or liability claims against the of-fenders, subject to the severity of the breach.
Each employee acknowledges and agrees that the provisions of this Code of Conduct are subject to change in e.solutions’ sole discretion considering the applicable laws and regulations.
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