Welcome to our whistleblowing function
Based on Senior Material Europe’s fundamental values, it is in the interest of the business to ensure that anyone who suspects serious irregularities within Senior Material Europe reports this through the whistleblowing function. Senior Material Europe’s whistleblowing function deals with serious irregularities and misconduct and the service is managed by the company PwC. For any comments about the business in general, you should therefore contact the manager responsible for the business. In the event of a whistleblower report, whistleblowers have the right to protection against retaliation under the Whistleblowing Act (Act on the Protection of Persons Reporting Irregularities 2021:890). In addition to employees, workers and agency staff, the group of protected persons includes volunteers, interns, consultants and persons performing work under the supervision of Senior Material Europe. A reporting person is a person who, in a work-related context, has received or obtained information about irregularities and reports this information. A work-related context refers to a person’s current or previous work within Senior Material Europe, where the person has received information about violations. Senior Material Europe’s whistleblowing function does not replace the facility to report irregularities to your immediate manager or their manager, but supplements these actions if for any reason you do not want to report to a manager. Senior Material Europe’s whistleblowing function consists of
- an online system
- PwC’s receiving function, which is also responsible for the online system and case management, and
- specially appointed recipients within Senior Material Europe
What situations can be reported?
A report must concern serious irregularities in the business of such nature that there is a public interest in these being disclosed, corrected or stopped. Examples may include:
- Suspicion of fraud, corruption or other forms of financial crime
- Non-compliance with working environment legislation
- Suspected environmental crime or serious forms of systematic harassment
For example, the whistleblowing function does not cover the reporting person’s own working conditions or employment relationship or anything else that should be reported through Senior Material Europe’s usual reporting channels. As an operator, Senior Material Europe may not obstruct or attempt to obstruct reporting or, because of reporting, retaliate against a reporting person, anyone involved with the operator who assists the reporting person with the reporting, anyone involved with the operator who his associated with the reporting person, or a legal entity that the reporting person owns, works for or is otherwise associated with. For the protection to apply, the reporting person must have reasonable cause to assume that the information about the irregularities was true at the time of reporting. If a whistleblower is nevertheless subjected to retaliation, they are entitled to damages.
Anonymity
A reporting person may choose to remain anonymous In Senior Material Europe’s whistleblowing system.
How do you report a concern?
Reporting is done in an online system where you can choose between reporting in writing via an online questionnaire, verbally via a telephone call, or in a face-to-face meeting. When the report has been submitted, the reporting person receives a special login code that should be used to track the case in the online system in order to receive feedback on the case.
Click here to access our reporting channel.
How are reports processed?
PwC’s function for receiving reports carries out an initial assessment of the received case. After PwC’s initial assessment of the case, the recipients within Senior Material Europe will get access to the case and the assessment in the online system. If a case that is received is assessed by PwC’s receiving function to contain information that concerns one of Senior Material Europe’s recipients, that person or those persons will not be included in further processing.
Senior Material Europe has appointed special persons to handle incoming cases, known as recipients. Senior Material Europe’s recipients are persons who are deemed to be able to handle incoming cases independently and on their own.
Confidentiality
The person dealing with a reported matter must not without authorisation disclose information that could reveal the identity of the reporting person or of any other individual party (either natural or legal person) involved in the matter. The reporting person will receive confirmation via the online system that a case has been received and about the measures that have been taken in the follow-up of the case.
External reporting
The internal reporting channels are the whistleblowing function set up by Senior Material Europe, but a report can also be made to the competent authority responsible for the area to which the report relates.
An external reporting channel is a channel established with an authority for handling reports of violations that fall within the authority’s area of responsibility, and which may include irregularities in any operator, whether in the public or private sector.
The authorities designated by the Government to be the competent authorities required to establish and manage external reporting channels are: the Swedish Work Environment Authority, the Swedish National Board of Housing, Building and Planning, the National Electrical Safety Board, the Swedish Economic Crime Authority, the Swedish Estate Agents Inspectorate, the Financial Supervisory Authority, the Public Health Agency of Sweden, the Swedish Agency for Marine and Water Management, the Swedish Authority for Privacy Protection, the National Inspectorate of Strategic Products, the Health and Care Inspectorate, the Swedish Chemicals Agency, the Swedish Consumer Agency, the Swedish Competition Authority, the Swedish Food Agency, the Medical Products Agency, the County administrative boards of Sweden, the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency, the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency, the Swedish Post and Telecom Authority, the Swedish Government Offices, the Swedish Inspectorate of Auditors, the Swedish Tax Agency, the Swedish Forest Agency, the Swedish Gambling Authority, the Swedish Energy Agency, the Swedish Board of Agriculture, the Swedish Board for Accreditation and Conformity Assessment, the Swedish Radiation Safety Authority and the Swedish Transport Agency.