Report a non-compliance concern

At Nestlé, we live our company purpose with our values rooted in respect. The Nestlé Corporate Business Principles reflect our commitment to a strong ethical culture as a non-negotiable foundation of how we do business. Therefore, it is crucial for our company to have a robust reporting system that enables us to listen to anyone along our value chain about any non-compliance concern.

This is where Speak Up, our dedicated reporting channel, comes into play.

Anyone can speak up

We encourage our employees to speak up whether they are directly confronted or witness a noncompliant situation, like incidents of harassment, discrimination, abuse of power, bullying, fraud, corruption or conflict of interest, or any other potential non-compliance. This includes any incident and/or behaviors that go against our values, Corporate Business Principles or Code of Business Conduct and the laws and regulations where we operate. When employees don’t feel comfortable talking to their Line Manager, Head of Human Resources or Head of Legal and Compliance, they can report confidentially through our Speak Up system.

We also encourage third parties associated with Nestlé to speak up if something isn’t right. You can help us by reporting any non-compliance issues through our Speak Up system. This is independently operated by a third party and offers you anonymity if you wish.

“Nestlé’s Speak Up system empowers all staff and external stakeholders. It gives every person the chance to report potential non-compliance with our values, corporate business principles or the Nestlé code of conduct. Whether you’re directly confronted with a non-compliant situation, or are witness to it, please do speak up. Thank you for your trust.”

Leanne Geale, Executive Vice President – Group General Counsel

How to report a compliance concern

Here you’ll find all the information you need to speak up about non-compliance, 24/7, 365 days a year.

1. Submit your report via a webform or call a toll-free number to leave a message. You have the option to remain anonymous. https://nestle.speakup.report/speakup
2. Include a detailed description of your concern (who, what, when, how) and add supporting evidence, e.g., copies of documents or names of witnesses, that can corroborate your report. Please note that general assertions can’t be investigated.
3. Once you’ve submitted your report, you’ll receive an individual case number. You’ll need this number each time you access the system.
4. We take all non-compliance concerns seriously and will carry out the appropriate action on each report. We’ll keep you informed on our progress accordingly.
5. You can track progress by going back into the website using your case number.

What happens after you submit a report

Once you’ve submitted your report, it’ll go through a few stages. Here’s what will happen next.

1. Acknowledgement of your report
We’ll acknowledge receipt of your message within five working days. If your initial report doesn’t include enough actionable information / evidence, you’ll be asked to provide more information / evidence.

2. Triage
Each report is reviewed carefully. We’ll open a case if your report includes minimum actionable information and evidence. In the absence of a conflict of interest, the investigation will be led by our Market Compliance Officer in the region / country where the incident is said to have taken place.

3. Escalation
Reports that contain allegations in one of these 11 sensitive categories will be escalated to the Group Chief Compliance Officer and the relevant Zone Head of Legal and Compliance.
1.    Abuse of power and/or bullying
2.    Antitrust and fair dealing
3.    Bribery and corruption
4.    Confidential information, privacy policy
5.    Discrimination, harassment and violence
6.    Executive Board members / Senior managers in Switzerland
7.    Fraud
8.    Human rights
9.    Management Committee members related
10.    Non-compliance against WHO Code
11.    Sexual harassment

4. Confidential investigation
To ensure the investigation is confidential, we’ll only involve people who need to be involved. Our Compliance Officers may conduct confidential interviews with employees, contractors or anybody they feel is relevant to the investigation.

As a general practice, it takes around 90 days for an investigation to be concluded. However, we may need more time for complex matters.

5. You'll receive a decision
After reviewing all the findings of the investigation, we’ll decide if any further action needs to be taken. We’ll keep you informed of progress and will send you a final reply outlining the outcome of the investigation.

Nestlé prohibits any retaliation against an employee, individual or entity who has made a report. We’ll also protect the rights of any implicated person.

Start a report: https://nestle.speakup.report/speakup
 

In the Republic of Ireland, the Protected Disclosures Act 2014 (the Act) enables workers to raise concerns regarding potential wrongdoing in the workplace. You may raise concerns in accordance with the Act, and that relate to Nestlé Ireland if you are a worker and information came to your attention in a work-related context which you reasonably believe tends to show a relevant wrongdoing. Employees can raise concerns in the manner outlined in our internal Protected Disclosures Policy which is available on the “Me @ Nestlé” internal webpage. Other workers can raise concerns via our online form or by submitting their concerns in writing to their local HR Team.  If you raise a concern in this manner, we will acknowledge its receipt within seven days. We will then review the concern in detail and determine next steps in accordance with the Act. We are committed to protecting the identity of the worker raising a concern and any third party mentioned in the concern where possible and in line with our statutory obligations.

We ask that you provide as much detail as possible when raising your concern, including dates, names and specific details of the relevant wrongdoing. The Act does not require us to accept and follow up on anonymous disclosures and, due to the practical difficulties that can arise with anonymous reports, we do not encourage anonymous reports. Nonetheless, anonymous disclosures can be raised via our online form or by submitting their concerns in writing to your local HR Team and if we consider it appropriate in the circumstances, we may decide, on a case-by-case basis to follow up on an anonymous report.

Workers are not obliged to raise their concerns directly to Nestlé Ireland and may, in certain circumstances, wish to make reports to a Prescribed Person or the Office of the Protected Disclosures Commissioner (the Commissioner). While the Company hopes that workers will feel comfortable raising their concerns directly, should they consider it necessary to raise concerns externally, they can do so via external reporting channels. Workers should however be aware that to fall within the remit of the Act, more stringent standards apply where concerns are to be raised with a prescribed person and/or the Commissioner. You can get a full list of prescribed persons by sector on gov.ie. This list will help you find the right person or body to report to. Details as to how to raise a concern with the Commissioner are available on the Commissioner's website.