WHISTLEBLOWER POLICY

This Whistleblower Policy applies to reports submitted under the Whistleblower Scheme ("Whistleblower Scheme"), which applies to Asetek A/S (hereinafter named ‘Asetek’, and meaning both Asetek A/S and its affiliated companies).

The purpose hereof is to explain how the Whistleblower Scheme works and thus to avoid any potential restraint on the reporting of material concerns.

1. INTRODUCTION TO ASETEK’S WHISTLEBLOWER SCHEME

A Whistleblower Scheme is a secure possibility to “blow the whistle” if employees or other interested parties affiliated to Asetek experience or suspect anything illegal within Asetek or in activities connected with Asetek.

Asetek is a responsible professional body with an open-minded culture where everybody is free to speak, also if they experience anything irregular or illegal.

The preferred approach must be to speak with the immediate superior, head of human resources, or the manager of Asetek; however, if you feel insecure about discussing a specific problem with someone superior, you may file a report – whether or not anonymously – within the framework of Asetek’s Whistleblower Scheme. If the report falls within the scope of the whistleblower legislation, it will be processed.

2. WHO CAN REPORT?

Reports may be filed by all employees of Asetek and other stakeholders of Asetek:

• Self-employed individuals.
• Shareholders and members of the executive board, board of directors, supervisory board, or an equivalent management body in a company.
• Volunteers.
• Paid or unpaid interns.
• Individuals working under the supervision and direction of contractors, subcontractors, and suppliers.
• Individuals who report or disclose information they have gained access to in an employment relationship that has since ended.
• Individuals whose employment relationship has not yet commenced, who report information about violations they have obtained during the recruitment process or other pre-contractual negotiations.

3. WHO CAN BE REPORTED?

All concerns involving employees of Asetek or other interested parties affiliated with Asetek may be reported. This applies both to employees, executives and members of Asetek’s Board of Directors as well as to other persons affiliated with Asetek, including suppliers, cooperation partners, lawyers, and accountants.

4. CONCERNS TO BE REPORTED

The Whistleblower Scheme is only for reporting serious concerns or suspicion thereof. It must be a matter of contravention of laws, rules, politics, guidelines, etc. Less serious concerns, e.g. dissatisfaction with salary conditions, lack of co-operation, etc., should never be reported as Whistleblower cases, but can be dealt with via the Grievance procedures. 

• The following are examples of serious concerns to be reported within the Whistleblower Scheme:
  • White-collar crime, e.g. embezzlement, bribery, fraud, and forgery
  • Submission of incorrect and misleading information to public authorities
  • Workplace safety violations
  • Environmental damage
  • Physical violence and sexual harassment
  • Corruption
  • Nepotism
  • Incidents where system access is grossly misused by employees not having any work-related requirement but merely wishing to obtain information about colleagues or others
  • Irregularities concerning accounting and auditing

The above is merely a list of examples. If in doubt whether your observation must be reported or not, you are recommended to file a report. All reports will be answered and handled appropriately, and any inquiry from you will be highly appreciated.

In the interests of the further investigation of the report, including uncovering the misconduct, it is decisive that you help to clarify the misconduct to best effect. A thorough investigation of a report is not possible if the report is unspecified or if it merely concerns very wide accusations without any detailed specification.

5. WHO WILL DEAL WITH THE REPORTS?

Reports must be filed via Asetek’s attorney, HjulmandKaptain’s Whistleblower Scheme available on Asetek’s website.

All reports are handled by HjulmandKaptain, who makes a screening to verify if the report falls within the scheme and evaluates the competence of the person selected to deal with the report within Asetek. The report must subsequently be sent to the relevant person in charge within Asetek, i.e. the chairman of the board of directors and a member of the Audit Commitee.

All parties involved, including the persons in charge of handling reports within the scheme at Asetek and HjulmandKaptain, will treat all reports as confidential.

6. HOW ARE THE REPORTS HANDLED?

Upon receipt of a report, the specific concern will be subject to an initial investigation.

If the report turns out to be obviously unfounded, or if it is filed by an individual not entitled to report, see item 2, or if it falls outside the scope of the Whistleblower Scheme, see items 3 and 4, it will be rejected and deleted in the system, and the person having filed the report will be duly notified if having revealed his/her identity and will be guided to where the report can then be communicated.

If the initial investigation concludes that the filed report falls within the scope of the Whistleblower Scheme and cannot be characterized as obviously unfounded, it will be subject to a more thorough investigation. The incident will be dealt with internally in Asetek and may result in disciplinary sanctions for the reported person. The incident is deleted in the system but is retained for up to 5 years in the personnel file of the person concerned.

The incident may be of such a character that it must be entrusted to the police for further investigation. When the police (and the courts, where relevant) have completed their investigations and any period allowed for appeal has expired, the incident is deleted in the system. The case may end up in the court system and the reported person may be imposed a fine or a prison sentence.

It is important that the system is not used for accusations where a suspicion is directed against innocent persons. Consequently, all reports must be filed in good faith.

7. HOW TO REPORT

Reports must be filed via this whistleblower portal. It is not possible to file a report to Asetek in any other way, e.g. by sending an email to the person in charge of the Whistleblower Scheme, due to the exchange of confidential personal data, which may never be sent in unencrypted form via the open Internet.

It is also possible to file a report to an external whistleblower scheme handled by the Danish Data Protection Agency. It is optional whether you wish to report via this internal Whistleblower Scheme or via the external scheme offered by the Data Protection Agency.

Information about the Data Protection Agency’s whistleblower scheme and about how to report is available on this link: https://whistleblower.dk/

Asetek urges you to use Asetek’s scheme.

8. SUBSEQUENT CLARIFICATION AND OBTAINING OF FURTHER INFORMATION

When reporting, you will have the possibility to log into the system anonymously to see if the person in charge has asked any further questions to the case or requests further documentation. Any subsequent dialogue is 100% anonymous and is based solely on the Whistleblower’s willingness to log into the system and reply to the questions from the person in charge.

9. PROTECTION OF THE WHISTLEBLOWER

Anyone reporting a concern may freely decide whether to report anonymously. Asetek encourages the person reporting not to remain anonymous in order to facilitate the clarification of the case.

All reports filed in good faith are protected against any form of negative consequences (retaliation). Anyone threatening retaliation against a Whistleblower having reported in good faith will be met by disciplinary sanctions.

If a Whistleblower decides to report non-anonymously, Asetek will treat the report as confidential, wherever possible.

If the Whistleblower has decided to reveal his/her identity, and legal proceedings are instituted against the reported person, the Whistleblower may, however, be called as a witness in any such proceedings.

Asetek will not accept any deliberate submission of false reports from any employee. Should anyone deliberately make a false report, it may have legal consequences, including disciplinary sanctions, e.g. a summary dismissal, a dismissal or a warning.

Generally, the Whistleblower’s identity will not be disclosed to the person being subject to the report. The identity will, however, be disclosed if the report turns out to be deliberately false. 

10. INFORMATION ON REGISTRATION OF THE REPORTED PERSON

The recipient of a report is obligated to notify the reported person about the concern being reported by the Whistleblower. Each individual case will be specifically evaluated as to when such notice may be given in order to avoid any consequences for uncovering the reported concern and for the collection of evidence as a result of the notice.

Further, reference is made to the Privacy Policy for the Whistleblower Scheme, according to which the duty of disclosure is handled under the General Data Protection Regulation in relation to reported persons as well as to anyone reporting a concern.

No information will be disclosed about the Whistleblower even if the Whistleblower might have chosen to reveal his/her identity.

11. DATA SECURITY

The system used for recording the reports is hosted by Whistleblower Software ApS, which is an independent company guaranteeing the security and anonymity of the system. The system does not log on any IP address or machine ID, and all data transmissions and data retention are encrypted. Only the person in charge has access to the processing part of the system. Additional information on the security is available in the Privacy Policy for the Whistleblower Scheme.

Secure record-keeping of all reports is ensured, so that only relevant persons have access to the information. Only HjulmandKaptain, who has access to the Whistleblower Scheme, will evaluate the competence of the person subsequently dealing with the report within Asetek.

12. QUESTIONS

All questions about the Whistleblower Scheme may be directed to the Law Office of Hjulmand­Kaptain, tel. no. +45 70151000.