OQ Chemicals commits to aligning its business activities with the following internationally recognized standards and guidelines:

• The United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights
• The United Nations Guiding Principles for Business and Human Rights (UNGP)
• The International Labor Organization’s (ILO) conventions and recommendations on work and social standards
• The principles of the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC)
• The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s (OECD) Guidelines for multinational corporations

Entrepreneurial action applies to our own business transactions and our global supply and value-added chains.

Our guidelines and principles form the obligatory action framework for all co-workers and business partners and define concrete measures and aims. Concrete measures include the training of co-workers and the implementation of minimum requirements, such as internationally and nationally applicable legislation, as well as the core standards for work of the International Labour Organization (ILO).

We are committed to strengthening human rights and preventing any violation of human rights in our supply chains. 

For this purpose, OQ Chemicals has developed a risk process for evaluating suppliers.

OQ Chemicals’ duty of care with regard to human rights is implemented within our Supplier Risk Analysis, whereby we consider above all the following issues: child labor ban, co-worker representation, fair and safe working conditions.

If a supplier cannot prove social standards and principles or they are suspected of not observing them sufficiently, then OQ Chemicals initiates an escalation loop. The culmination of the escalation loop results in a termination of the business relationship. Suspicions can be referred via media, business partners or other OQC departments and must be reported to Legal or Risk Management, who in turn must warn Sustainability Management and Procurement.

Depending on the result and severity of the ambiguities or deviations from OQC requirements, differing measures are implemented, which apply to the individual situation and assessment:

• Initiating a dialogue with the supplier to assess the situation and possible ambiguities
• Setting timeframes and measures to eliminate relevant ambiguities and/or to achieve a set level of improvement
• Physical audit on the supplier’s premises (this can be carried out by an authorised third party)
• Termination of the business relationship
• When ambiguities or uncertainties cannot be resolved to a satisfactory degree then the business relationship is terminated

All the steps of the escalation loop and the decisions made must be documented appropriately (e-mails, written documents, etc.) and archived for a minimum of ten years.