Integrity Line

1. What's it all about?

For us as a company, the receipt and subsequent investigation of reports is an opportunity to constantly scrutinise and improve our actions as well as our guidelines and processes. By reporting your concerns, compliance risks such as possible reputational damage can be recognised and averted at an early stage.

We want to strengthen the willingness to behave lawfully in our company and at the same time make it easy to submit reports. Our basic expectation is that any misconduct or violations will be addressed directly face-to-face. This means that any accidental or unintentional misconduct can be stopped quickly and easily and avoided in the future.

If, in individual cases, a face-to-face dialogue does not lead to the desired result, the Blum Integrity Line is available to you.

Create a new event report

2. What information about suspected violations or prevention of these can you give?

• Information that covers the material scope of the EU Directive 2019/​1937 and the material scope of the Austrian Whistleblower Protection Act (HSchG). This includes environmental protection, product safety and compliance, financial services, protection of privacy, personal data, etc.

• Reports that refer to the Blum code of conduct.

3. What information should be provided?

 

• Summary of the facts: what specifically happened?

• Who is involved or affected? (Name, number of people, etc.)

• Where did the incident occur? (Company, plant, department, etc.)

• When did the incident occur? (Date/period, time)

• How many times did this incident occur? Is the incident still ongoing?

• What immediate measures were taken?

• Is there any proof? (Photos, videos, documents, witnesses)

4. In what form can you submit your report to the Integrity Line?

You can provide your contact details or submit the report anonymously. Reports can be submitted in both German and English. Responses are sent in the language you used as the whistleblower.

Reports that are submitted in other languages will not be followed up.

5. How are reports that are submitted within the Blum Integrity Line processed?

Reports are submitted by completing a digital form, which is electronically "registered". All reports are collected centrally and confidentially processed by the responsible members of the Blum Integrity Line team. These individuals are instructed to:

• Evaluate issues for the improvement of internal processes and pass them on to the respective departments

• Take all concerns seriously and investigate these efficiently and in good time

• Assess matters objectively and without prejudice

• Take appropriate corrective measures and propose sanctions to the Management Board if concerns are found to be valid

• Document all case-relevant information including the decision made

If you included your name when you submitted the notification, you will receive a direct response by email. With anonymous submissions, you will receive a code that can be used to log into a personal mailbox and obtain updates and enter further information.

Receipt of a report will be confirmed directly. Questions can be sent via email or the personal mailbox. After a maximum of three further months, you as the whistleblower will receive information about what follow-up measures are intended, have been taken or why the report is not being followed up.

If you do not wish to be contacted subsequently, please include this in your message.

Depending on the circumstances, reports may be forwarded for further processing within the company.

6. In which cases am I protected as a whistleblower?

Whether you are protected as a whistleblower by the Austrian Whistleblower Protection Act (HSchG) depends on the connection to our company, the type of report and validity of the report.

If all the conditions for whistleblower protection are met, then you are protected from reprisals such as dismissal, negative performance reviews or other disciplinary measures in accordance with the Whistleblower Protection Act.

We guarantee in any case the protection of your identity as a person providing information, as well as the protection of the identity of persons concerned.

7. Other ways of submitting reports

We prefer to talk to you in person and would like to offer you the option of contacting us personally with your concerns: code.of.conduct@blum.com.

In addition to the possibility of submitting information internally, you also have the option of submitting information externally. External bodies vary depending on the country. The first external point of contact available to you in Austria is the Federal Bureau of Anti-Corruption.

Track event report

Please enter your event report key here for an already sent event report: