Our commitment
Respect for human rights is a fundamental aspect that we want to guarantee, with a view to sustainable development, across the entire value chain.
Starting from the Code of Ethics, through the Sustainability Policy, the Human Rights Policy, the D&I Policy, the Gender Equality Policy and the Policy to combat episodes of violence and bullying, we have adopted tools to safeguard respect for human rights that apply to all employees and counterparties with whom Erg comes into contact (including, for example, business partners, suppliers and third parties with whom it signs acquisition projects).
All our policies are inspired by international best practices on respect for human rights, the main ones being: the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises (MNE), the Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, the principles and rights established in International Labour Organization (ILO) conventions, human rights at work and the International Bill of Human Rights. ERG adheres to the United Nations Global Compact and the Women’s Empowerment Principles (WEPs), among other associations focused on human rights.
Our commitment is aimed at preventing and punishing episodes of child labour and forced labour, and seeks to guarantee freedom of association, equal remuneration and equality among people. It concerns all the people with whom we come into contact: employees, women, children, employees of third-party companies and local communities.
Supply chain
Within its supply chain, the ERG Group has decided to adopt a Supplier Code of Conduct that defines the principles and rules of behaviour that every supplier must comply with.
Supplier selection is overseen by Procurement, which verifies suppliers’ adherence to the values and rules of conduct of the ERG Group: before entering into any relationship, they must sign the Code of Ethics, the Supplier Code of Conduct, Model 231 and the Anti-Corruption Rules.
Based on our internal policies, all our counterparties are subject to:
- Assessment of their reputation at global level: Any confirmed violation of the principles contained in the reference documents or the presence of “alerts” on the monitored topics results in the cancellation of ongoing assessment and award processes and of any contracts already issued, as well as exclusion from our Vendor List;
- On-site checks: all companies operating at our sites, whether contractors or subcontractors, must comply with all health, safety and environmental requirements and human rights requirements, which are binding requirements for the award of contracts of any nature and amount.
- Continuous supplier monitoring: through Vendor rating, since 2020 a dashboard has been active that collects, among others, ESG indicators, allowing a view of the supplier’s risk profile. Those with inadequate performance in the most serious cases (for example, failure to respect human rights, forced labour, child labour) are subject to inclusion in the black list.
Employee awareness
To raise awareness among our employees, we organise Evolving Talks, an ERG Academy format dedicated to sharing different topics, including those related to human rights, through the voices and experiences of people who practise activism, research and dissemination at international level, with an interesting perspective for the countries in which we are present.
We have also carried out internal surveys to analyse employees’ perception of any discriminatory or non-inclusive actions.
Due Diligence processes
In order to prevent cases of failure to respect human rights and to reward gender equality and equality, the Group:
- Has adopted a system of policies that all counterparties must comply with, involving stakeholders;
- Defines and maps risks at least once a year: both risks that are specific and internal to the organisation, and external risks, which may concern, among others, suppliers and new business partners;
- Has established control bodies such as:
- Supervisory Body: in its role as Ethics Committee, it oversees the correct application of the Code of Ethics, with specific regard to respect for human rights, equal opportunities, etc., and manages any reports through the dedicated channels (dedicated e-mail and ordinary mail) made available to all employees and third parties;
- Human Capital Committee: monitors the effective application of the Human Right, Diversity & Inclusion, Anti-Violence, Harassment and Bullying, and Gender Equality Policies and manages reports relating to their non-compliance (through our whistleblowing system).
- Carries out continuous monitoring, for example through ESG audits on the supply chain;
- Has implemented corrective and punitive actions;
- Has defined increasingly challenging objectives that promote equality and equal opportunities.