Our suppliers must show respect for people

With our Swedish heritage, we are naturally interested in sustainability. As a large company and buyer, we strive to affect working conditions in a positive way – and to prevent slavery and promote workers' rights in our suppliers' factories.

We must not be directly or indirectly involved in situations that entail violations of human rights. We strive to ensure the employment rights of our own staff and those of our suppliers' employees are respected. We do not maintain business relationships with any supplier that we know violates the human or employment rights of its employees.

We understand that ethical behaviour is about the culture of an organisation as well as its policies and processes. By 2020, we wish to be the preferred employer in medical devices – which we can only be if we are ethical and socially responsible in our employment practices and regarding our employees' human rights.

We transfer this culture over to the way we treat our suppliers, building long-term relationships with our suppliers based on fairness, collaboration, transparency and open communication. We ask our suppliers in turn to promote good practice among their partners and suppliers.

Our approach

Our guidelines for behaviour for both our employees and our suppliers are based on the principles outlined in the following documents:

• UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights
• UN Global Compact  and Agenda 21
• ISO 26000 Guidance on Social Responsibility
• OECD Guidelines for multinational enterprises
• relevant International Labor Organization (ILO) conventions
  
  

Ensuring compliance

There are local HR representatives for all our factories, sites and sales offices across the globe, who are charged with implementing our HR policies and setting contracts. We regularly audit compliance across all our sites.

We formally evaluate more than 50% of our primary suppliers, which includes a human rights assessment.

We routinely conduct supplier audits to assess the health of our suppliers’ quality systems. Our audits include interviews with workers, interviews with management, inspection of the production site and a review of records. Our supplier premises may also be audited by our Notified body or the Competent authority in the territory in which the supplier is based.

If we identify that a supplier is violating their employees’ human or employment rights, we either cease doing business with them or we expect them to put things right quickly. We ask suppliers to acknowledge within 48 hours that they have inducted it into their problem-solving system, understood it and are seeking to resolve the problem.

At the end of 14 days, we expect our suppliers to either document how they have solved the problem or submit a detailed plan explaining what actions will be taken and a projected completion date. We then require evidence to show that the non-conformity has been corrected.

Follow the link and find our Statement on slavery and human trafficking, approved by the board of Mölnlycke Health Care AB and signed by our CEO Richard Twomey.