A permanent commitment by the Group
In 2006, the Bouygues group introduced a Code of Ethics, which reaffirms the Group’s fundamentals of respect, integrity and responsibility.
The Code of Ethics is intended to guide managers and employees in their day-to-day decisions, regardless of their level of responsibility, the entity, project or country concerned.
The principles that govern the actions contained within the Code of Ethics are outlined in more detail in an Anti-Corruption Code of Conduct, and in the following compliance programmes and specific policy documents:
- Anti-Corruption Code of Conduct
- The Embargoes and export restrictions compliance programme
- The Competition compliance programme
- The Conflicts of interest compliance programme
- The Financial information and securities trading compliance programme
- A “Gifts and Hospitality” policy
This literature is regularly updated and describes the behaviour to be adopted by employees and helps them make decisions in real-life situations.
The Ethics, CSR and Patronage Committee is routinely informed whenever serious breaches are observed and monitors the remedial measures. As with the parent company, each business segment has its own Ethics committee and Ethics officer.
Whistleblowing facility
The Group encourages staff to express themselves freely and therefore has rolled out a secure system for collecting and processing whistleblowing alerts. This platform is freely available and guarantees the confidentiality of the whistleblower, the identity of the person implicated in the whistleblowing alert and of the information obtained.
Duty of care, a matter of great concern for the Group
The Bouygues group is intent on preventing serious violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms and safeguarding its personnel and the environment. Bouygues’ vigilance plan includes indicators to identify and prevent serious violations that may result from Bouygues’ activities, those of its subsidiaries, and those of its sub-contractors and suppliers with whom the company has an established a commercial relationship. Such violations may concern the following areas: human rights and fundamental freedoms, health and safety, and the environment.
The risk map used to assess third parties is based on a common framework comprising seven overarching categories of risk relating to human rights abuses, violations of fundamental freedoms, risks to health and safety, and risks to the environment. The vigilance plan is based on work done by committees created by the business segments comprising representatives of their CSR, Legal, Purchasing, Human Resources, Health & Safety, and Internal Audit and Control departments.
Initiatives have been rolled out Group-wide. Examples include the CSR Charter for Suppliers and Subcontractors, which sets out the key commitments that suppliers and subcontractors must uphold in order to do business with the Group. The Group has set up a corporate whistleblowing facility to receive and process all whistleblowing alerts, including those relating to its duty of care obligations.