Last February, BESIX Group introduced a Whistleblowing Procedure based on the EU Whistleblower Directive. This directive engages companies to provide safe reporting channels to their staff and collaborating organisations who have access to information or data, become aware of serious wrongdoing or irregularity, and decide to report these to their company’s attention.
BESIX Group fully complies with the EU Whistleblower Directive (2019/1937), promoting transparency and accountability within our organisation. Whistleblowing reports are an integral part of our commitment to maintaining the highest standards of ethics and compliance.
We want to remind you of the importance of this procedure and clarify what it entails. It is important to understand what is meant by whistleblowing and the procedure behind it.
Two key points to remember about the whistleblowing procedure:
1. Reporting channels: The Group encourages whistleblowers to use any of the designated reporting channels to raise their concerns. These channels are in place to ensure that their reports are handled with the utmost confidentiality and nondisclosure.
2. What to report: Whistleblower reports should pertain to events or situations directly related to the Group's operations or business. These reports should reasonably appear to involve a violation of law, regulation, or Group policy.
More information
You will find online all the information you need about the whistleblowing procedure, as well as our whistleblowing policy, and the Collective Labour Agreement signed within the Group's European Works Council on the Protection of Whistleblowers.
Scope of whistleblowing alerts
A wide range of areas are covered in the procedure, some are not:
1. Whistleblowing alerts may cover breaches of the rules on:
- Public procurement
- Competition law
- State aid rules
- Financial interests & services
- Corporate tax rules
- Environmental protection
- Food, product, and transport safety & compliance
- Public health
- Nuclear energy
- Consumer protection
- Right to privacy and protection of personal data
- Security of networks and information systems
All the needed information to report that kind of issue can be found online.
2. The following alerts are not part of the EU Whistleblower Directive:
- Personal work-related grievances or conflicts with colleagues
- Matters that are not related to the Group's operations or business
This means that the Group's collective labour agreement in the BESIX Group European Council on the protection of whistleblowers does not cover the reporting of these grievances. All the information on that kind of issue can also be found online (Corporate Code of Conduct). Contact your local People Manager or a Confidence Officer.
Contact for the whistleblowing procedure
If you have any questions or require further information about the whistleblowing procedure, please contact your local People Manager or the ESG team (ESG@besix.com).