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Ethical business behaviour

Arjo has an ethical responsibility to employees, customers and business partners, and we strive for high business ethics on all levels. Ensuring compliance is part of our daily work. Good business ethics and well-defined principles for compliance are at the core of Arjo’s long-term business relations. Our strategy is to support companies that share our core values. Our ambition is to influence other players in contributing to the development of a fair global market, free of corruption.

Ethics and Compliance Committee

The Ethics & Compliance Committee sets the strategic direction pertaining to Arjo’s business ethics and regulatory compliance. It acts on the instruction of the Management Team and monitors that Arjo’s operations comply with the ethical guidelines in the global market, and follows-up ongoing internal processes and activities in this area. The committee also has an advisory function and responds to employees’ questions.

Code of conduct

Arjo’s Code of Conduct applies at Group level and to individual employees and comprises legislation, regulations, human rights, the environment, health and safety, and business ethics. Our Code of Conduct is based on the following international principles:

- UN Global Compact
- OECD’s guidelines for multinational companies
- The UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights
- The International Labor Organization’s (ILO) Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work

View our code of conduct (download link)

Training and development

Compliance and ethics play an important role in the healthcare industry, and our employees play a critical role in ensuring we meet the overall requirements in these areas. We have therefore created programs for the training and development of all our employees globally in these areas, and specifically focused on our Code of Conduct. This is a work in progress that started in 2017, and will continue into the future.

Anti-corruption

Arjo has zero tolerance for all types of fraud, bribery or other types of action that create wrongful advantages and contravene our policies, local laws and regulations, industry standards and ethics codes in the countries where the Group operates. Our anti-corruption policy has been prepared to combat corruption and the Group’s employees and business partners are expected to comply with it.

Whistleblower function

We stress the importance of identifying suspicions of any wrongdoing at an early stage. Employees are encouraged to inform of any situation where there is evidence or suspicion of corruption or other ethically unacceptable actions.

Customers, subcontractors and other stakeholders can also raise their concerns anonymously, by using our whistleblower communication channel, managed by the external party WhistleB Whistleblowing Centre.

The communication channel can be reached on any device, including smart phones.

Whistleblowing start page

EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)

Arjo protects privacy when processing personal data. To meet the requirements of EU GDPR, Arjo carried out a number of activities during 2018 under the framework of a global GDPR program, including defining internal processes regarding personal data processing and employee trainings. Arjo’s Ethics & Compliance Committee monitors this area regularly.