Responsible Purchasing Policy and Implementation Principles

Responsible Purchasing Policy is designed to ensure that suppliers' business practices comply with Arçelik values and current legal rules, and must be complied with by all suppliers.

Accepting and complying with Arçelik Responsible Purchasing Policy is a contractual obligation. In case of a serious violation of this Policy in a systematic manner, Arçelik reserves the right to terminate the contract with its suppliers. Likewise, Arçelik expects from its suppliers to have and implement "Responsible Purchasing Policy" covering its own supliers (Arçelik's Tier 2 suppliers). 

The policy is published on the Arçelik Global website and is sent to suppliers on a regular basis.

Some details in our Responsible Purchasing Policy are as follows:

Child labor: 

Any form of child labor incompliant with relevant legislation at suppliers are never tolerated. Unless a higher age limit is specified in local laws, anyone who has not completed compulsory education and who is under the age of 15 should not be employed. Employees under the age of 18 should not be employed in hazardous jobs and night jobs to meet their training needs. 

Forced Labor: 

Any form of forced, compulsory, trafficked labor incompliant with relevant legislation at suppliers are never tolerated. He should not ask any employee to deposit collateral, provide bail or leave his identity to the custody before starting work. It must not force its employees to work hard, through any threat, force, false claims or other form of pressure. This requirement includes high-interest loan provisions, promissory notes, contracted, slave/captive, migrant employment or other forms.

Discrimination: 

Suppliers respect and accept ethnic and cultural diversities and take measures to protect and promote diversities and commit to create working environments where there is equal opportunity, mutual trust, respect for human rights without discrimination.

Freedom of Association: 

Suppliers respect their employees’ right to unionization and their decision to become a union member, their right to organize and collective bargaining in accordance with the law. 

Harassment: 

Zero tolerance is shown towards the violation of supplier employees’ privacy in any form of physical, sexual, psychological and/or emotional harassment in the workplace or anywhere they present due to work. 

Wages:

Wages paid to supplier employees, overtime and wage-based rights must comply with the applicable labor laws of the countries in which they operate. 

Working time: Suppliers must act in compliance with the applicable labor law of the countries they operate regarding working hours and rights of annual leave. Unless local legislation establishes a lower maximum for working hours and except extraordinary conditions of work, suppliers shall not ask their employees to work more than 48 hours a week regularly and 60 hours a week in total (including also overtime work) in a work week. Suppliers shall ensure overtime work to be voluntary and to have the necessary payments made in accordance with local and national laws or regulations. Except extraordinary conditions of work, employees shall have at least one day of leave in every seven-day period.

Implementation Principles

In the audits conducted to Arçelik suppliers, their compliance with the rules in this Policy is questioned, non-conformities are expected to be improved by initiating corrective and preventive actions, and improvements are checked by  follow-up audits.

Arçelik may request removal of an employee of any of its suppliers, who acts against the relevant laws and regulationsor who violates these rules or may terminate the contract with the relevant supplier.

Arçelik encourages and expects supplier employees to report any incompliant actions to this Policy. The following reporting channels can be used to report suspicious behavior contrary to this Policy or violation of the rules in this Policy.

Web: 

Whistleblowers can report incompliant actions to this Policy by using the tab “Raise a Concern Online” on www.ethicsline.net

Telephone:

Whistleblowers can also raise their concerns by dialing Ethics Hotline phone numbers dedicated specifically to countries. Ethics Hotline phone numbers can be found from www.ethicsline.net through “Raise a Concern by Phone” tab.

Arçelik ensures that all investigations will be handled with absolute confidentiality and whistle-blowers will be protected. Arçelik will protect the confidentiality of the individual who has reported suspicious behaviour of the supplier incompliant to this Policy or possible violation of business ethics and will not tolerate any retaliation against that individual.

If this Policy is revised by Arçelik, suppliers undertake to accept the revised Policy and commits to adapt Global Code of Conduct and related Code Policies  and comply with the principles specified herein.

Environmental Regulations and Protection

Arçelik is aware of its social responsibility to protect the environment and expects from its suppliers to undertake to establish environmental management systems, to improve it continuously and to protect the environment in accordance with the relevant national and international legal legislations and regulations in order to enhance their environmental performance in line with the principles of sustainable development and circular economy. While Arçelik operates in line with the principles of prioritizing the sustainability approach and fighting the climate crisis, it expects from its suppliers to take the Arçelik Environmental Policy as a reference and become a partner in this commitment. As part of this commitment, all Arçelik suppliers, without limitation, must comply with the environmental concerns determined in the Policy. Some of them are highlighted below;

• Ensure the efficient use of natural resources in all processes,

• Manage their processes in line with the circular economy approach,

• Set targets and objectives to improve environmental performance, plan the actions, follow the results, and focus on continuous improvement for their products, their production activities and their suppliers,

• Carry out activities to combat the climate crisis and contribute to transition to a low carbon economy, considering the climate related risks and opportunities of their activities,

• Determine the water risks considering the sector needs and the geographies in which is operated, and conduct studies to manage these risks,

• Ensure in their all activities that compatibility requirements of environmental legal legislations are met,

• Adhere to all applicable laws, regulations, customer requirements and Arçelik procedures regarding the prohibition or restriction of hazardous chemicals that can be used in materials, parts, components of products. 

For more details please visit:

Responsible Purchasing Policy