1. Introduction
Integrity is important to Trenker Pharmaceutical Laboratories. For this reason, an internal reporting channel has been implemented to enable employees and external parties to report breaches of internal policies and procedures, laws and regulations in complete confidentiality. This policy sets out how, when and by whom a report may be filed and how it will be dealt with.
The whistleblowing policy complies with the Belgian legislation of 28 November 2022 on the protection of persons who report violations of European Union law or national law within a legal entity in the private sector.
Proven breaches of this policy and of internal procedures, laws and regulations may be subject to sanctions in compliance with the work rules and legal provisions in force.
2. What can be reported?
The following subjects fall within the scope of the whistleblowing policy:
1. Infringements relating to the following legal fields of application: Public procurement;
b. Financial services, products and markets, prevention of money laundering and financing of terrorism;
c. Product safety and conformity;
d. Transport safety;
e. Environmental protection;
f. Radiation protection and nuclear safety;
g. Food and animal feed safety, animal health and animal welfare;
h. Public health;
i. Consumer protection;
j. Protection of privacy and personal data, and network and information system security;
k. Combating tax fraud;
l. Combating social fraud.
2. Offences against the financial interests of the European Union.
3. Internal market offences, including breaches of EU competition and state aid rules.
Consequently, this policy does not cover employment-related complaints or interpersonal grievances between the whistleblower and another colleague. For complaints of this kind, please contact your line manager, the human resources department, or a trusted person if that position exists in the organisation or the external service for prevention and protection at work.
3. Who can file a report?
A whistleblower is a person who reports information about violations that have taken place in a professional context. The professional context includes all stakeholders who have a professional relationship with Trenker Pharmaceutical Laboratories, including:
- Employees;
- Self-employed workers;
- Members and people belonging to the administrative, management or supervisory bodies of Trenker Pharmaceutical Laboratories, including volunteers and paid or unpaid trainees or interns;
- Anybody working under the supervision and direction of contractors, subcontractors and suppliers of Trenker Pharmaceutical Laboratories;
The term "professional context" also includes any professional cooperation that has been formally initiated or completed. This policy also applies to prospective employees, where information about breaches has been obtained during the recruitment process or other pre-contractual negotiations.
4. Submitting reports
Trenker Pharmaceutical Laboratories provides an internal reporting channel via the GoComply tool, which is accessible at the following address:
https://dashboard.gocomply.be/public/concept/4756?access=IcQRXTtNUsVcoI9ZODpMLw%3d%3d
If you are aware of an offence or suspect an offence, we strongly encourage you to report your concerns through the internal channel provided here. Reports may be made in writing. Reports will be received by the whistleblowing report manager. When the report is made, it is important that the author of the report saves the access link and their login details, as this is the only way of accessing the report at a later date and the only way of communicating with the whistleblowing report manager.
As an organisation, the company is required to provide feedback to the whistleblower on the progress made in dealing with the report. To do this, it is important that we are able to contact them via the platform.
Anonymous reports
Although the design of the tool allows anonymous reports to be made, Trenker Pharmaceutical Laboratories is entitled not to accept them. In the event of anonymous whistleblowing, the whistleblower will be asked to disclose their identity in confidence to the whistleblowing report manager. It is important that the author of the report saves the access link and their login details. This is the only way to access the report at a later date and the only way of communicating with the whistleblowing report manager.
All reports will be dealt with within the allotted time, regardless of their degree of seriousness. However, the whistleblowing report manager reserves the right to prioritise one case over another. The degree of seriousness of the facts reported in no way affects the level of protection afforded to the whistleblower.
5. Report content
In order to properly assess and study the report, the whistleblower is asked to provide the following information:
- The whistleblower's relationship to Trenker Pharmaceutical Laboratories (e.g. employee, supplier, etc.) ;
- The name and contact details of the whistleblower;
- Detailed description of the incident or violation, including
- The nature of the incident (what happened)?
- When did it happen (date and time if available or period)?
- Where did the incident occur (at the office, ...) ?
- The whistleblower's role or involvement in the incident (e.g. witness, victim or perpetrator);
- Any information relating to the people involved:
- Potentially, the names and contact details of the people involved in the incident;
- Potentially, the names and contact details of people who witnessed the incident or have more information about it;
- Any information on previous similar incidents or offences involving the person(s) in the report.
- Any supporting or useful documents relating to the report.
Thanks to the file number and verification code, whistleblowers can consult their report again and, if necessary, provide additional information or upload documents.
6. Processing your report
1. The report is received and dealt with by the internal whistleblowing report manager.
2. On receipt of the report, the report manager will check whether it falls within the scope of this whistleblowing policy.
If this is not the case, the author of the report will be informed (via the platform) and, where appropriate, depending on the report, will be directed to the relevant department within the company or to external bodies.
3. Within 7 days of receiving the report, the whistleblower will be informed whether or not the report has been accepted by the platform.
As far as possible, all communication between the author of the report and the report manager will take place via the secure platform in order to guarantee the confidentiality of the report.
Examination of the report
4. When the report is accepted, the report manager opens an investigation based on the content of the report.
5. Within three months of the report being accepted, the report manager will inform the whistleblower of the investigation progress via the platform. Whistleblowers have the right to be kept informed of the progress of the investigation. However, they do not have the right to be informed of the full content of the investigation. This ensures that they are unable to impede progress of the enquiries being made. The persons named in the report or identified in the course of the investigation may be contacted by the report manager if this is deemed necessary for the investigation to continue. In this case, the confidential nature of the report will always be taken into account. The report manager will also assess whether contacting these people might impede the investigation.
Closure of the investigation
6. Once the investigation is complete, the whistleblower is informed of the results of the investigation. Anybody who was contacted during the investigation and is therefore aware of the report will be informed of the closure of the investigation, taking into account the confidentiality of the report.
7. Report confidentiality
If the whistleblower raises a concern, confidentiality of identity will be guaranteed in accordance with applicable laws and regulations. The whistleblower's identity will not be disclosed to persons other than those authorised to receive or follow up whistleblower reports without his or her express consent. This also applies to any other information from which identity can be (in)directly deduced. The identity of the author of the report may only be disclosed if there is a necessary and proportionate obligation imposed by European or national legislation in the context of investigations by national authorities or judicial proceedings (for example, in order to protect the rights of defence of the person concerned in the context of a judicial enquiry).
If questioning a person involved in the report risks compromising the confidentiality of the report, the whistleblower will be contacted first.
8. Whistleblower protection
Whistleblowers benefit from protection if they had reasonable grounds to believe that the information they disclosed regarding the offences was true at the time of reporting and that this information fell within the scope of the whistleblower policy. No whistleblower, no third party associated with the whistleblower and no person who helped the whistleblower to file a report as defined in the scope of this policy may be penalised or subjected to discriminatory action. No retaliatory measures may be taken against those who, in good faith, report a beach or suspected breach of the rules.
9. External reports
It is strongly recommended that offences are first reported via the Trenker Pharmaceutical Laboratories internal reporting channel. This allows the company to investigate the report and take appropriate action.
Within the European Union, a whistleblower has the option of reporting externally on an offence falling within the scope of the legislation to a competent local authority responsible for receiving and investigating whistleblower reports. Whistleblowers can also contact the Federal Ombudsman.
Text version: December 11th, 2023. The French-language version is the legal reference version used as the source for all translations.
English version: Version translated from the French version of December 11th, 2023.