1. Compliance with law
- The Supplier must comply with the legislation, official regulations and national and international agreements such as the requirements of collective agreements, environmental, labour and occupational safety legislation, as well as provisions related to accounting and contractor's liability.
- The Supplier shall comply with the United Nations' Declaration of Human Rights as well as workers' rights as defined by the International Labour Organisation (ILO).
- The Supplier must have appropriate procedures and processes for identifying, preventing, minimizing and correcting human rights violations. The procedures must be in accordance with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGP).
- L&T is committed to the UN Global Compact initiative and accordingly promoteshuman rights, labour rights, the environment and anti-corruption efforts. L&T also expects the Supplier to comply with these principles in its operations.
- The Supplier's personnel must have the right of association.
EXAMPLE 1
You act as a supplier for L&T and notice that the product you are supplying is not in compliance with legal obligations/lacks the CE marking, etc. L&T has indicated that they are in a hurry to get your product and have been waiting for it for some time. What should you do?
Contact immediately L&T's contact person to report the situation. L&T cannot accept products that are in breach of the law.
EXAMPLE 2
You work as a subcontractor for L&T and recognise that L&T's work site is in breach of environmental legislation. What should you do?
Contact immediately the foreman in charge of the site to report the situation. L&T complies in all its operations with environmental legislation and requires that its suppliers do the same.
2. Principles of conducting the business operations
Remuneration and working hours
- The Supplier shall comply with all applicable legislation concerning pay and working hours, including minimum wage legislation and laws on mandatory benefits (e.g. overtime compensation, holiday pay, etc.).
- The Supplier's employees have the right to receive a salary corresponding to their position, taking into account the minimum wage regulations.
- As a rule, the Supplier's employees may not work for more than six consecutive days without at least one day off.
Integrity and transparency
- The Supplier shall comply with good business practice and applicable competition legislation in all its operations.
- The Supplier must act against all forms of corruption, including extortion and bribery.
- In order to avoid conflicts of interest, the Supplier's management and key personnel are required to inform L&T of any kinship or other close relationship with L&T's procurement personnel.
- The Service Provider, its suppliers and subcontractors are part of the Vastuu Group’s Reliable Partner programme, and comply with their obligations.
- The Supplier shall ensure the protection of confidential material as well as data protection and data security.
EXAMPLE 1
You work as a service provider for L&T. Your subcontractor is not part of the Vastuu Group's Reliable Partner service and wants to submit the required documents to you separately. What should you do?
As an L&T Supplier, you are responsible for ensuring that your supplier and subcontractors are part of the Reliable Partner service and that the information is in order. You inform the subcontractor that membership in the Reliable Partner service is mandatory for L&T suppliers and subcontractors. You cannot continue to cooperate with the subcontractor if the subcontractor does not join the Realiable Partner service and the information in the service is not in order.
EXAMPLE 2
You work as a supplier for L&T and have access to L&T's prices and procurement volumes for wholesale. It is proposed that you disclose this information to a third party for a fee. What should you do?
Do not disclose the information because it is confidential information. You inform L&T's contact person about the matter.
EXAMPLE 3
You have worked as a supplier for L&T and have access to personal information provided to you by L&T. The information leaks due to reasons beyond your control. What should you do?
Inform L&T's contact person about the matter within 24 hours to minimise the damage. L&T will take care of it from there, you are not required to do anything else.
3. Respecting human rights
Respecting others and the employer’s responsibility
- L&T requires that the Supplier undertakes to respect internationally recognised human rights in all its operations and to promote their implementation.
- L&T requires the Supplier to treat everyone fairly and equally.
- Each person’s dignity, privacy and rights shall be respected, and no discrimination, threats, harassment or bullying in any form shall be tolerated in the Supplier’s working environments.
- There shall be no discrimination in respect of recruitment, remuneration, promotion or termination of employment.
- There must be no discrimination based on gender, age, religion, marital status, race, social group, social background, illness, disability, pregnancy, ethnic or national origin, political opinion or sexual orientation.
Child labour and forced labour
- L&T does not accept the use of child or forced labour (including human trafficking) under any circumstances or in any form, nor will it enter into contracts with suppliers employing such workforce.
- The Supplier guarantees that the employees perform the work voluntarily, not under any penalty or other threat.
- The Supplier does not use forced labour in any form.
- The Supplier does not confiscate employee IDs.
- The employees may terminate the employment relationship after a reasonable period of notice.
- The employees are free to leave the workplace after a shift.
- The Supplier shall comply with all regulations concerning the minimum age of employees.
EXAMPLE 1
You work as a supplier for L&T and you notice that your subcontractor is subjecting its employees to discriminatory and/or inappropriate treatment based on ethnic origin. What should you do?
Discuss the matter with the subcontractor and inform the subcontractor that we do not tolerate any form of discrimination or inappropriate treatment. Monitor that the subcontractor changes its practices. If no changes are made, you change subcontractor. Inform L&T's contact person about the matter.
EXAMPLE 2
You notice that your subcontractor's employees are required to work continuously for seven days a week without any holidays and the working days are really long. What should you do?
Inform the subcontractor that you cannot cooperate with a company that is in breach of the labour legislation. If the matter is not corrected, stop cooperating with the subcontractor and submit a health and safety notice to the occupational health and safety authority. Also inform L&T's contact person about the matter.
4. Ensuring health and safety
Working environment
The Supplier shall ensure that its employees have a safe and healthy working environment
- by adhering to the relevant safety and health legislation.
- by taking preemptive measures to avoid occupational accidents.
- by ensuring that the necessary protective equipment is available and that the working methods are safe.
- by ensuring that risk factors are reported and monitored.
Substance abuse
- The Supplier shall ensure that its employees do not work or present themselves in the workplace under the influence of alcohol or other intoxicants.
- Suppliers shall have in place the necessary and effective procedures and guidelines for the prevention of substance abuse.
EXAMPLE 1
You work as a subcontractor for L&T in a customer location. A few times, you have nearly tripped on cardboard boxes in the dimly-lit staircase of a customer location. What should you do?
Notify your L&T contact who records your observation as a safety observation and discuss corrective action with the customer.
EXAMPLE 2
You work as a subcontractor for L&T in a work location. The work site has instructions on the protective equipment that should be worn. You consider the instructions to be excessive and unnecessary. What should you do?
Protective equipment has been selected for the work site on the basis of the risk assessment to ensure the safe working of the employees. Every person working on the site has a legal obligation to use the assigned protective equipment for the task or site. Therefore, use the protective equipment according to the instructions.
5. Reducing environmental and climate impact
- L&T requires that suppliers comply with the environmental legislation, regulations and permits in all their activities.
- The Supplier must take the initiative to promote environmental responsibility (e.g. proper waste treatment, energy efficiency and reduction of emissions). L&T encourages its suppliers to monitor developments in the areas of environmental responsibility and to reduce the negative environmental impacts of their operations.
- L&T has set scientific emission reduction targets validated by the Science Based Targets initiative and recommends its suppliers to set greenhouse gas emission reduction targets for their own operations.
EXAMPLE 1
You work as a waste processing/receiving partner for L&T. Your environmental permit does not allow receiving the waste delivered by L&T, but you believe that sharing this information would affect the cooperation. What should you do?
You cannot accept waste that is not covered by your environmental permit. Report this to your L&T contact.
EXAMPLE 2
You work as a subcontractor for L&T and find that coolant is leaking from the refrigeration machine. What should you do?
Immediately contact L&T's contact person on the site. Coolants can be very harmful to the environment and contribute to climate change.
6. Supplier assessment
- As part of the L&T Responsibility Programme, all suppliers complete a self-assessment form at the request of L&T at the beginning of the cooperation and at regular intervals during the cooperation. If the Supplier does not complete the self-assessment form or the self-assessment reveals serious defects, L&T cannot enter into/continue cooperation with the Supplier if the Supplier does not remedy the defects within a reasonable timeframe.
- L&T or its designated external representatives have the right to inspect the Supplier for compliance with these guidelines. The Supplier shall assist in carrying out this inspection.
- If the Supplier acts in violation of these instructions, legislation or ethical principles, L&T has the right to terminate the contract and stop all cooperation with the Supplier with immediate effect. L&T will not cooperate with suppliers that cannot comply or whose subcontractors cannot comply with these instructions.
7. Reporting malpractice
At L&T, we respect our work community and our partners. Our goal is that our operations are as open, transparent and fair as possible. To ensure good business practices, we want to actively address abuses and violations related to us.
Read more about Whistleblowing channel
