Code of Conduct

Slévárna GIFF a.s. is a company with a long tradition of producing grey and ductile iron castings. Our company is closely tied to Frýdlant nad Ostravicí, where it is located, and to the people who live there; it influences the town and its surroundings, and we feel responsible for that.

Code of Conduct, GIFF, Czech version

We Uphold Ethical Principles and Comply with the Law

  • Ethical principles and respect for the law are the fundamental principles of our conduct and corporate culture.
  • Our company is established and exists under the laws applicable in the Czech Republic; we continuously monitor, know, respect, and unconditionally and consistently comply with the legal regulations governing our activities and relationships.
  • We act and make our decisions in accordance with the principles of corporate culture, social responsibility, collegiality among employees and fair business dealings, and in accordance with the rights and obligations arising from legal regulations, decisions of public authorities and the contractual relationships to which we are a party.
  • We consider lawful and ethical conduct by our business partners to be an essential condition of our cooperation.

We Are a Socially Responsible Company

  • Our visions, plans and decisions always take into account the interests of our business partners and employees, the impact on the regions in which we operate, and the effects on their inhabitants and on the environment.
  • We strive to ensure that our relationships with our business partners, public authorities, our employees, trade unions and the public are long-standing, stable and based on mutual respect and justified trust in fair dealing.
  • We support the regions in which we operate and seek to contribute to further improving the quality of life of their inhabitants.

We Honour Our Corporate Culture

  • We are proud of our history, on which we build as we further develop our company as an enterprise with lasting values, traditions and customs.

The fundamental principles of our corporate culture are:

  • customer orientation, accommodating and fully satisfying customer needs with the highest-quality products and services,
  • consistent fulfilment of commitments,
  • good interpersonal relationships based on cooperation and mutual respect,
  • employee satisfaction and motivation,
  • development and use of employees’ knowledge, abilities, skills and experience,
  • teamwork,
  • a high standard of work ethic,
  • the entrepreneurial spirit of good stewards – technological advancement based on continuous innovation,
  • continuous improvement of everything and everyone.

We Value Our Employees

  • Respect for human rights is a matter of course in our company. We neither encourage nor tolerate any form of discrimination. We respect employees’ right to privacy. We condemn all forms of violent or forced labour.
  • We condemn the exploitation of child labour. We employ only persons who meet the conditions laid down by law.
  • We do not tolerate any form of illegal work, including at our business partners.
  • The minimum standard in our relationships with employees is always the procedures and conditions laid down by law. This also applies to the conclusion and content of employment contracts and other employment-law contracts and agreements, working hours, rest periods including work breaks, ordering of overtime, remuneration, wage deductions and termination of employment relationships.
  • We pay our employees properly for their work, including allowances for afternoon, night, weekend and public holiday work, overtime and other allowances. Beyond the requirements of the law, we provide employees with social and other benefits.
  • We fulfil all our statutory information obligations towards employees as well as towards public authorities.
  • We communicate continuously with our employees, including meetings and briefings with top management and other managers, and keep employees informed about current matters through effective means of communication.

We Apply a Whistleblowing Policy

  • We enable our employees and other persons to report wrongdoing and to submit questions and complaints.
  • We thoroughly address all reports, questions and complaints, resolve them and use them for further improvement.
  • We guarantee everyone protection against any retaliation for reports of wrongdoing, questions or complaints submitted in good faith.

We Are Committed to Occupational Health and Safety

  • The health and safety of our employees is an integral part of all our activities and has the highest priority. We create the most favourable working conditions possible. We comply with our major-accident prevention safety programme and ensure that every work activity is carried out using safe working procedures.
  • We have developed, and continuously evaluate and update, a system for identifying and assessing the risks of occupational health damage, which also includes measures to eliminate those risks.
  • We believe in prevention. We continuously train and educate our employees in safe work and health protection.
  • We provide our employees with personal protective equipment according to lists drawn up for each workplace. Employees at workplaces with increased heat or physical strain are provided with protective drinks.
  • We consistently ensure that our employees’ medical fitness is assessed through the system of occupational medical examinations; we do not permit work that does not correspond to an employee’s medical fitness.
  • If, despite our efforts, an accident occurs, we apply our system covering first aid, reporting and investigation of injuries or other adverse events, and the adoption of measures to prevent recurrence and to compensate for damage.

We Value Our Business Partners

  • We deal with all our business partners honestly, transparently, respectfully and fairly, and we expect the same conduct from them.
  • We respect the interests and needs of our business partners, provided this does not conflict with legal regulations and does not create excessive risk or cause harm.
  • We are committed to creating value for our business partners. With regard to our products, we apply the principle of continuous improvement and increasing their added value while reducing the environmental burden. We apply a zero-defect strategy.
  • We select our suppliers with thorough care so that the quality of our products is maintained. We conclude quality agreements with our suppliers and evaluate the fulfilment of their obligations.
  • We ensure appropriate supervision of compliance with work and technological procedures and of the handling of any complaints from business partners. We evaluate the satisfaction of our business partners.
  • We want our business partners to work with us on an ongoing basis or to come back to us. Our business partner’s success is our success too.
  • We believe in the unity of word and deed; what we promise, we deliver. We support an ethical business culture; we fulfil our obligations carefully, honestly and with integrity.
  • We are prepared to arrange audits of our company with our business partners.

We Condemn All Forms of Corruption

  • We have zero tolerance for offering or accepting bribes.
  • We strictly require our employees to refrain from any corrupt conduct; no one may, in connection with work for our company, on our behalf or with reference to us, demand or accept any benefit in exchange for granting or promising any advantage, nor offer or provide such a benefit.
  • We respect fair competition and intellectual property, and we protect personal data.
  • We are advocates of free, honest and fair competition; we do nothing that would distort such competition.
  • We avoid conflicts of interest and situations that could give rise to suspicion of such a conflict.
  • We respect intellectual property rights and the interest in maintaining the confidentiality of trade secrets and other confidential information, and we protect these rights and this information to the extent provided by legal regulations, contracts with business partners, the consent of data subjects and business ethics.
  • We always process the personal data of our employees, as well as of all other persons whose personal data has been provided to us, solely in accordance with legal regulations.
  • All our employees who, in the course of their work duties, come into contact with personal data, trade secrets or other confidential information are bound to maintain confidentiality regarding such data and information.

We Protect the Environment

  • Environmental protection is an essential part of our policy. Our standard is, at a minimum, compliance with all requirements of legal regulations and of the permits granted to us on their basis by public authorities.
  • We strive, on a long-term and systematic basis, to continuously reduce the impact of our activities on our surroundings.
  • To fulfil our environmental protection principles, we have established and apply systems for waste management with a preference for recycling, closed water circuits and industrial wastewater treatment plants, handling of chemical substances and energy management; our priority is the gradual reduction of emissions of air pollutants.

We Apply the Code of Conduct in All Our Activities

This Code of Conduct is the fundamental basis of our internal company regulations, including:

  • Organisational Rules
  • Organisational Directives (OD) and related internal standards

These set out the principles in specific terms to ensure they are applied consistently. We comply with this Code of Conduct, and we monitor and enforce compliance with it within our company.

Frýdlant nad Ostravicí, 30 November 2023