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Ethical guidelines suppliers

RELATION TO NATIONAL LAWS AND REGULATIONS

NOAH’s suppliers shall comply with NOAH’s ethical guidelines for suppliers, as well as internationally recognised conventions and relevant legislation.

ENVIRONMENT AND CLIMATE

The supplier shall comply with relevant national and international environmental standards. The supplier shall adopt a “precautionary approach” to pollution, environmental risk and other issues related to the environment and climate.

HUMAN RIGHTS

The supplier shall respect internationally recognised human rights and shall avoid breach of these. The supplier shall respect the dignity, privacy and personal rights of all people.

WORK STANDARDS

  1. ORGANISATIONAL FREEDOM AND RIGHT TO COLLECTIVE NEGOTIATIONS
    The supplier shall ensure and recognise the right to organisational freedom, and allow for collective negotiations, should a significant number of employees agree to this. In those instances where organisational freedom and collective pay negotiations are restricted by national legislation, the supplier shall allow employees the freedom to choose their own representatives within the legislation.
  2. COERCION The supplier shall ensure that the working relationship between employees and the supplier is voluntary and without threats of any kind. The supplier shall ensure that all employees are free to terminate their employment once they have notified the supplier of this in a reasonable manner. Employees should not have to deposit money, identity papers or similar in order to become employed or maintain employment.
  3. CHILD LABOUR
    The supplier shall be particularly cautious when following up child labour. Children under 18 years of age must not perform work that puts their health or safety in danger, including night work. Children under 15 years of age or of school age must not perform work that could harm their education.
  4. DISCRIMINATION
    The Supplier shall prohibit direct and indirect discrimination based on ethnicity, religion, age, disability, gender, marital status, sexual orientation, union membership or political affiliation, and promote equality in employment. The supplier shall prohibit and refuse to tolerate any form of sexually intrusive, threatening, abusive or exploitative behaviour and avoid discrimination or termination of employment on unjustifiable grounds.
  5. EMPLOYMENT CONDITIONS
    The supplier shall provide remuneration that meets the national legal standard for minimum wage. The salary shall be written in a signed contract and transferred to the employee on time. The supplier shall ensure that working hours are not unreasonably long and that they, as a minimum, fall within the limits set out in the relevant national laws. The supplier shall respect the individual employee’s need for rest and ensure that all employees are entitled to a satisfactory holiday period with pay.

HEALTH, WORKING ENVIRONMENTA AND SAFETY

The supplier shall ensure that all employees have a healthy and safe working environment. The supplier shall check work risks and set up measures to prevent accidents and work-related illnesses, including drawing legally required insurances. If required, employees must be equipped with appropriate personal safety gear and trained to use it. NOAH has a drug-free work environment and distances itself from combining intoxication with work. We set the same requirements for our suppliers.

The supplier must provide regular training to ensure that employees have the correct skills related to health and safety matters.

All suppliers working on Langøya must take a safety course before starting work. The safety course provides an introduction to the rules and routines for safety and emergencies. It is a requirement that all those who work on Langøya understand Norwegian or English.

ILLEGAL BUSINESS PRACTICES

  1. CORRUPTION AND OTHER ILLEGAL BUSINESS PRACTICES
    The supplier shall comply with laws and regulations relating to bribery, corruption, fraud and all other illegal business practices. The supplier shall not offer, promise or give any undue advantage, favour or incentive to government officials, international organisations or other third parties for the purpose of obtaining personal or business advantages. This applies whether such benefits are offered directly or indirectly through a middleman.
  2. GIFTS AND COURTESY GESTS Under no circumstances shall financial rewards be given. Courtesy gests such as social events, meals or entertainment can be offered if there is a commercial aspect involved and the cost is kept to a modest level. Costs for travel and accommodation for NOAH’s representatives must be paid by NOAH.
  3. MONEY LAUNDERING

The supplier shall distance themselves from all forms of money laundering and shall establish measures to prevent the company’s financial transactions used for money laundering.

  1. COMPETITION

The Contractor shall not cause or be part of a breach of competition law, such as illegal cooperation on pricing, illegal market cooperation or other form of conduct that violates the antitrust laws.

RELATIONS WITH SUB-CONTRACTORS

If a supplier uses sub-contractors, the supplier is obliged to forward and support compliance with these ethical guidelines among their sub-contractors. The supplier shall document how this is managed to NOAH upon request.

FOLLOW-UP

The supplier is obliged to comply with the requirements stated in this document in its own activities and contribute to compliance by the person or subcontractors that contribute to the performance of this contract. NOAH can require that this work is documented within reasonable time and in the following ways: a) Declaration by the supplier and / or b) Follow-up meetings with the client and / or c) Private or independent third-party inspection of working conditions at the production site. The employer reserves the right to conduct announced or unannounced inspections at the production site with the supplier and / or subcontractor in the contract period. During inspections the supplier must provide the names and contact information of subcontractors. Contact information is handled confidentially. The supplier can choose to document follow-up of requirements through adequate certification of the company.

SANCTIONS

Breach of the rules in this document is considered a breach of contract. In case of breach of contract, the supplier is obliged to rectify the identified deficiencies, and / or impose a subcontractor to perform such correction, within a timeframe that NOAH decides. The timeframe must be reasonable in respect of the nature of the breach. Corrections must be documented in writing, and NOAH shall have the final decision. If correction cannot be completed within the stipulated timeframe, NOAH can, in serious violations, impose cessation of work. For material breaches of the provisions of this document, the contractor may terminate the contract. In assessing whether the material requirement is satisfied, NOAH’s financial losses and loss of reputation, or risk of such a loss of reputation must be taken into account. Repeated breaches of the ethical guidelines or lack of follow-up after point 7 above, once NOAH has notified of the conditions, are considered as significant breaches of contract.