Human Rights
We recognize the protection of human rights as an essential part of our corporate social responsibility. As a group of companies, we are led by the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises on Responsible Business Conduct. They help us to translate our responsibility for human rights into concrete due diligence obligations.
Human Rights Due Diligence
With regards to our human right’s due diligence, we are committed to identifying and assessing the actual and potential adverse human rights impacts within our company’s facilities as well as within our supply chains.
- The great majority of our business partners are located in Switzerland and thus adhere to Swiss employer regulations and Swiss health & safety standards.
- We require suppliers that are deemed critical for our minerals or precious metal sourcing or for the circular economy of our precious metals to acknowledge our responsible Supply Chain Policy and to sign our Code of Conduct.
- We ensure that suppliers are certified according to certification schemes relevant to our field of business.
- We conduct periodic employee surveys according to the Trust IndexTM by Great Place to Work® in order to make our workplace culture tangible and actively improve it
- So far, no adverse impact on human rights, neither at the level of our employees nor at the level of our direct suppliers have been identified.
Based on the statements above, we currently deem the risk of human rights violations within our group of companies and our supply chain as rather low. However, we recognise our responsibility to respect human rights and are strongly committed to improve our human rights due diligence throughout our operations and supply chains over time.
Current activities in the area of human rights
The Cendres+Métaux Group is growing and is therefore required to adapt its due diligence obligations to its new size and organization. We are therefore currently working on the following activities:
- a fundamental commitment in the form of a corporate policy, which is intended to formulate our responsibility to respect human rights in concrete terms;
- the revision of our Code of Conduct. The new Code of Conduct for suppliers and partners should be based on the 2030 Agenda and express our expectations towards business partners more clearly. The new internal Standard for Business Conduct for employees is intended to communicate the expectations towards our workforce and our corporate culture in a transparent way.
- a due diligence system at Group level that aims to identify and assess the impact of our business activities on human rights and, if necessary, initiate and pursue corrective measures;
- a whistleblowing process and a publicly accessible reporting channel through which our stakeholders can raise concerns if they become aware of situations that do not comply with our Code of Conduct or the law.