“Trust” is one of our three corporate values. Trust is created through integrity, which we express using a series of instruments and policies. Our Code of Ethics therefore sits at the heart of our mission, vision and values as a company, and provides guidance on how we expect employees to conduct themselves as they go about their daily work. It is a vital tool in preventing irresponsible or illegal conduct.
This is supported by our Group Compliance Policies (including the Code of Ethics, the Anti-Corruption policy, Privacy and Data protection, and the Helpline Programme, among others) designed to ensure adherence from our employees, suppliers, business partners, sales agents, sub-contractors and distributors on the Prysmian way of doing business.
Our Code of Ethics and compliance policies live and evolve with the development of our business in the competitive world. We continuously evaluate all current laws and regulations relating to these areas and amend our policies accordingly, in line with the latest best practices. We also take the opinions of our stakeholders into account on these matters and consider their requests relating to legality and propriety. We also seek to support our ethical conduct with various initiatives, including the Prysmian Group Helpline program.
Updates to any of our policies are broadcast across the Group and made readily available to all employees and associated companies.
You can learn more about each of our ethics and integrity policies on the dedicated pages below.
Prysmian’s Code of Ethics is the basis of our company constitution. It is a charter of rights and moral duties and defines the ethical and social responsibilities of every person in the organisation.
The Code consists of three pillars:
All companies within the Prysmian Group agree to comply strictly with the Code of Ethics, applicable regulations, and the rules and procedures adopted by the Group.
Our Code of Ethics complies with international best practices and adopts the principles embodied in the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Fundamental Conventions of the International Labour Organization (ILO).
Integrity is a key value of the Prysmian Group. In order to ensure it is upheld at all levels within the company, we have established a compliance organisation to monitor observance of our Code of Ethics and other relevant compliance policies.
The organisation comprises the following roles:
With the goal of ensuring employee awareness of all our policies relating to ethical conduct, we introduced an e-learning module on our intranet. Completion of this module is obligatory for all Prysmian management and staff.
New versions of this on-line application are made available on the Group’s intranet and staff are notified when these updates are available.
With this approach, we aim to keep our employees continually engaged with our policies and stimulate greater understanding of their importance to us a company.
We are conscious of our corporate responsibility to respect human rights in our own business activities, in both our supply and value chains. We are committed to complying with all relevant and applicable national laws.
The elimination of corruption and unfair competition is taken extremely seriously by the Prysmian Group. To that end, the compliance policies enshrined in our Code of Conduct include an Anti-Bribery Policy and an Antitrust Code of Conduct. Both documents are published on the corporate intranet where all employees may access them and any updates are communicated across the company.
This policy prohibits the corruption of both public officials and private individuals. It requires all Prysmian employees to comply with its rules and regulations and, if the former are less restrictive, all the anti-corruption legislation in force in the countries in which they work or are active.
Under this policy, no employee may make, promise to make, offer or approve the payment of anything of value, whether directly or indirectly, for the benefit of public officials, unless in compliance with all current laws and to the extent expressly allowed by Group Policy.
For this purpose, the term ‘public officials’ means the employees of a public agency or company controlled by the government. This includes commercial entities, international public organisations, political parties or party officials, or candidates for public office.
Contributions to political parties or to any other entity, organization or individual for political purposes are strictly forbidden.
Download our full Anti-Bribery Policy
This code describes the issues relating to the application of Italian and EU competition policy with regard to agreements and the abuse of dominant positions. The specific situations arising must be assessed against this framework on a case-by-case basis.
Download our full Antitrust Code of Conduct
We strongly encourage partially owned affiliates and third parties to adopt similar policies and practices, especially if they are located, or do business, in a country that has signed the OECD Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions.
At Prysmian, we actively promote business practices focused on supply chain responsibility and sustainability and compliant with ethical, economic, environmental and social standards throughout the Group. These principles are enshrined in our Code of Business Conduct.
The Code applies to all employees and all our trade partners. The principles defined in the Code apply to the business transactions and to the daily activities of all employees, Group companies and related suppliers, trade partners, commercial agents, subcontractors and distributors.
The Code deals with the following topics: business integrity (fair trading, conflicts of interest, gifts and entertainment, bribery and corruption, reporting); human and labour rights (child labour, forced labour, occupational health and safety, non-discrimination, freedom of association and collective bargaining); and environment (precautionary principles, raw materials and compliance, energy consumption, greenhouse gases and other emissions, water consumption, waste generation and recycling).
The Code is available to all employees on the Intranet and any updates are circulated to the whole Group.
Download the complete version of the Code of Business Conduct
In recent years, the Prysmian Group has developed a number of initiatives inspired by Ethics, Integrity and Compliance values, all in line with applicable laws and regulations.
The culture of integrity, an essential part of our Company’s DNA, is strengthened by the 231 Organizational Models adopted by all of the Italian legal entities in compliance with Italy’s D.Lgs. 231/01.
Model 231 is conceived in such a way as to outline rules of conduct and control principles suitable for preventing the commission of 231 crimes with consequent responsibility to not only the individual but also to the company as well.
The guiding principle is to minimize the risk of seriously damaging the solidity and reputation of the Prysmian Group.
The Organizational Model 231 is consistently updated in order to capture any organizational changes as well as any legislative changes that may occur since the original Legislative Decree 231/2001 was ratified. As a matter of fact, in 2020, the Prysmian Group updated its 231 Organizational Model to include some tax crimes which were recently introduced in the 231 crimes catalog.
The Information Security Committee has the main responsibility of defining and monitoring Cyber Security's Strategic and Operational goals and ensuring the effectiveness and efficiency of the Cyber Security Framework and Program. Also, to discuss, plan, and monitor relevant Information Security topics and activities that apply to the whole Group and face Information Security issues and incidents.
