Veoneer is committed to maintaining, and fostering a culture of fairness and equity, where all of us act with the highest ethics and integrity, where unethical conduct is not tolerated, and where everyone feels empowered to speak up and raise concerns.
Code of Ethics
Our ethical culture starts with our Code of Ethics and its supporting policies and procedures, continuous ethics and compliance communication and education, combined with a transparent grievance mechanism. Veoneer’s Code of Ethics, published in 8 languages and available to all employees, consultants and contractors, defines the principles and standards that guide our day-to-day decisions to ensure we act with the highest ethics. Our Code of Ethics is being reviewed every 3rd year, and an updated version is being published at the beginning of 2022.
Our Code of Ethics is based on the following international standards and guidelines:
The OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises
The OECD Guidelines are a set of government-backed standards for responsible business conduct in areas such as employment and industrial relations, human rights, the environment, information disclosure, combating bribery, consumer interests, science and technology, competition, and taxation.
The UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights
The UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights are a set of guidelines for States and companies to prevent, address and remedy human rights abuses committed in business operations, wherever they operate. It rests on three pillars; state duty to protect human rights, the corporate responsibility to respect human right and access to remedy for victims of business-related abuses.
The ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work
The International Labor Organization has identified has identified eight fundamental conventions, covering subjects that are considered to be fundamental principles and rights at work: freedom of association and the effective recognition of the right to collective bargaining; the elimination of all forms of forced or compulsory labor; the effective abolition of child labor; and the elimination of discrimination in respect of employment and occupation.
Our Compliance Program
The Board of Directors has the ultimate responsibility of overseeing Veoneer’s Compliance Program through annual reviews of compliance reports.
Yearly, all employees at the managerial level and higher submit Code of Ethics certifications electronically in our compliance system. The certification requires the disclosure of known violations of the Standards of Business Conduct and Ethics, including
our anti-corruption, anti-bribery, and antitrust and competition policy, as well as other matters that may give rise to actual or apparent compliance concerns.
An important part of our Compliance Program is communication and education, to support employees in understanding company expectations and policies related to the Code of Ethics and other related company policies. Our ambition is to provide a continuing
communication channel for compliance matters, to deliver compliance messages to employees, to train and educate employees in their compliance responsibilities, and to support the Code of Ethics and our Compliance Program.
We have established a Business Conduct and Ethics Education Plan, which includes both classroom trainings and e-learning. Examples of areas covered include Code of Conduct training, conflicts of interest, whistle-blowing, and records retention.
Anti-Corruption and Competitive Behavior
At Veoneer, we gain trust and respect of our customers by creating world-class ecosystem and partnerships, being open and committed to acting honestly and in compliance with antitrust and fair competition laws and regulations. We have implemented high standards in all business transactions. It is our responsibility as a company, and as individuals representing the Company, to prevent corruption in all its forms. Our Company values ethical business practices and the law and we do not accept or offer any form of bribery.
Every other year, we enroll all employees in targeted groups, such as management and sales and purchasing, in a business conduct and ethics education e-learning courses on anti-corruption and antitrust. Periodically, we also conduct face-to-face trainings to enhance the employees’ understanding of compliance with our policy.
Helpline
We build trust through our choices and decisions, always taken with the highest level of ethics, by doing the right thing, acting with honesty and integrity at all times, and empowering employees to speak up when suspecting unethical behavior.
Veoneer employees are responsible for immediately reporting suspected or known violations of the Code of Ethics, the law or Veoneer policies to their manager or a member of management, HR, the Legal and Compliance Department, or through the Veoneer Helpline.
The Veoneer Helpline is an ethics and compliance reporting line available to all employees since day 1 of the company. The Veoneer Helpline is a multilingual, third-party operated service where reports can be made confidentially, without fear of retaliation, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, by phone or online. This can be done anonymously where allowed by law and/ or confidentially in the language of any country where Veoneer operates.
We believe that reports, investigations, and constructive feedback play an important role in making our Company a great place to work. At Veoneer, we are committed to protecting individuals who make a report or participate in an investigation in good faith. “Good faith” means that when making a report or participating in an investigation, all the information is provided with honesty.
Retaliation, harassment, and reprisals of any kind are not tolerated at Veoneer. In addition, no employee will be adversely affected because they refused to carry out a directive they believe constitutes fraud or a violation of laws, regulations, or the Code of Ethics or any other Veoneer Standard.
For our Ethical performance during 2023, please see our Sustainability report.
