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1. Establishment of a human rights committee
The GC-GROUP has set up a human rights committee that involves the Legal, Strategic Purchasing and Sustainability departments. This committee works closely with the management to develop and implement preventive and remedial measures in the event of human rights violations.
2. Implementation of a risk management system
The GC-GROUP has implemented a comprehensive risk management system to monitor human rights compliance throughout its supply chain and to conduct annual risk analyses. When prioritising and considering risks in its own business area, the GC-GROUP considered the risk factors of discrimination, freedom of association, occupational health and safety at work, fair working hours and gender equality to be of particular importance. In prioritising these risks, the GC-GROUP takes into account the fact that, as a wholesale alliance for bathroom supplies, heating, air conditioning, electrical, roofing, civil engineering and industrial technologies, it employs people in various areas, such as purchasing/service and logistics, finance and controlling, sales, marketing and product data management, administrative activities (HR and legal department) as well as IT and data security. When prioritising and considering risks associated with direct suppliers, the GC-GROUP carries out a comprehensive review that considers abstract risk factors such as country and industry risks as well as a number of other key factors. These include the acceptance of a Supplier Code of Conduct and a so-called Business Impact Score. The latter helps us to determine the GC-GROUP's degree of influence on a supplier and vice versa.
3. Preventive and remedial measures
Based on the risk analysis, we implement both preventive measures and remedial measures. These include training and educational materials for our employees, a comprehensive compliance booklet for use by all stakeholders, the implementation of a sustainable procurement strategy, and the immediate implementation of measures to correct legal violations as soon as they are discovered. These measures are an integral part of our efforts to protect and promote human and environmental rights.
4. Grievance mechanism
The GC-GROUP has established a publicly accessible grievance mechanism on its website that allows employees and other stakeholders to report human and environmental rights violations that occur within our own business or at our suppliers.
5. Documentation and reporting
The work of the human rights committee and the results of the risk analysis are documented and reported annually to both the management and the Federal Office for Economic Affairs and Export Control (BAFA).
6. Supplier Code of Conduct
The GC-GROUP has published a Supplier Code of Conduct, which is to be accepted by each of our suppliers and serves as the basis for our business relationship. This code sets out clear requirements regarding human and environmental rights.