Compliance

The Sartorius Code of Conduct specifies the requirements on the responsible conduct of all employees of the Sartorius Group. This set of rules provides them with guidance on how to act in a legally correct and ethically appropriate way in their daily work.

Sartorius ensures that all Group employees worldwide are thoroughly familiar with both Codes by requiring them to complete online training and earn a certificate.

Sartorius adheres to the principles of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Labor Organization (ILO) and the United Nations Global Compact, the world’s largest initiative for human rights, labor standards, environmental protection and anti-corruption. The company’s internal principles, such as its Code of Conduct and Code of Conduct for Business Partners, are derived from these global tenets.

In addition, Sartorius has made it a policy to require its business partners to adopt its standards of compliant conduct as well. For this reason, Sartorius performs third-party due diligence or so-called business partner checks; i.e., the company reviews the integrity of business partners on a risk-oriented basis.

The Sartorius Group also expects its suppliers and service providers, in particular, to comply with internationally recognized social and environmental standards, to abide by the laws, uphold the tenets of fair competition and to respect human rights. Our company excludes existing or new suppliers who are determined to be the source of considerable risks regarding compulsory, forced or child labor, other violations of human rights or negative effects on society. These requirements are set forth in our Code of Conduct for Business Partners.

This Policy is intended to encourage and enable anyone inside or outside Sartorius to report established or soundly suspected breaches of applicable laws, standards and regulations and internal policies and guidelines.

Most of the content of the Speak-Up Policy is already included in the Rules of Procedure for Whistleblowers. This is because the German Supply Chain Due Diligence Act requires the publication of such rules of procedure. Due to the many overlaps with other whistleblowing laws, Sartorius has decided to harmonize the reporting requirements as far as possible. Where this is not legally possible, there will be locally specialized Speak-Up Policies and reporting channels.

For additional information, please refer to the Rules of Procedure for Whistleblowers.

Unconditional compliance with the relevant law and internal regulations is a top priority and an integral part of the values of Sartorius AG (“Sartorius” in the following). This includes the responsible treatment of human rights and the environment. Against this background, Sartorius takes the obligations of the German Act on Corporate Due Diligence in Supply Chains and the German Whistleblower Protection Act very seriously.

Sartorius opposes any violation of human rights or the environment in its own business areas and along the supply chain.

1. Whistleblowing and complaints

Sartorius encourages open and transparent communication and fosters a speak-up culture with the goal of promptly identifying and addressing any shortcomings and preserving public trust.

Sartorius undertakes to identify and remedy any defects immediately. To achieve this Sartorius maintains a reliable, user-friendly, and effective complaints procedure. This procedure serves as an early alert system and enables Sartorius to implement preventive measures or remedial actions to end, mitigate, or prevent risks or violations of Sartorius’ policies or applicable laws.

Anyone inside or outside Sartorius (including, but not limited to, employees of direct or indirect suppliers) may file a complaint. Whistleblowers may remain anonymous.

Any indications of possible violations of laws and/or applicable regulations (e.g. the Sartorius Code of Conduct for Employees or the Code of Conduct for Business Partners) or of human rights or environmental risks or violations can be reported through the whistleblowing and complaints procedure.

Sartorius is committed to ensuring that (potential) reporters who submit reports or complaints in good faith do not face retaliation. Sartorius will leverage its influence on business partners along the supply chain to protect their employees, to the extent possible, from any form of retaliation.

Sartorius will thoroughly investigate any report and involve the reporter appropriately throughout the process. The handling of the report will be conducted in a fair, neutral, and independent manner.

To uphold confidentiality, both the identity of the reporter and the contents of the report will be kept strictly confidential, in accordance with applicable laws and regulations. Sartorius complies with all relevant data privacy laws and regulations.

2. Reporting channels

Sartorius implemented the following reporting channels covering various languages and being available around the clock. Via the following reporting channels everybody can make a complaint.

In addition the Compliance Teams of the Legal Affairs & Compliance division, the Chief Compliance Officer and the respective managers are available as contact person.

3. Further information

For additional information, please refer to the rules of procedure.

Sartorius employees, suppliers, customers or partners can use our E-Mail inbox to contact our Compliance Team directly. There they will receive answers to questions concerning compliance and can report incidents.

Email: compliance@sartorius.com

Anyone can make a report at any time using the international toll-free number. This telephone line is accessible 24 hours a day. In case your call cannot be answered personally, you can always leave a message on the answering machine. You will receive answers to questions concerning compliance and can report damaging conduct, also anonymously, if desired. 

Toll-free number: +800 2244 2211*
_{*Depending on the country you are calling from, it is possible that the international toll-free hotline is unavailable as some telephone network providers do not support the service. If so, please use the chargeable number offered below.}

If your local telephone provider does not support the toll-free service, you can call the following chargeable number.

Chargeable number: +49 551 5041 9941

An internal system is available for reporting any suspicious circumstances involving potential compliance violations.

In addition to having set up established routes for reporting compliance-related concerns to the Compliance Department or managers, Sartorius has created a whistleblower portal to enable employees, suppliers, customers or partners to report any potentially damaging conduct 24 hours a day, seven days a week. This specially secured portal is made available through an external provider who is specialized in handling confidential data securely. Every whistleblower can decide whether or not to report compliance-related concerns by giving his or her name or by doing so anonymously.

https://srtrs.info/WhistlerBlowerPortal