Code of Conduct

Compliance@SCHOTT is the main title of the Compliance Program at SCHOTT, in other words the SCHOTT Code of Conduct, the corporate guidelines and measures derived from it and the Compliance Organization responsible for enforcing it. The main goal of Compliance work is to ensure that SCHOTT remains a successful company over the long-term. Making our people more aware of Compliance topics is one of the main objectives. The aim is to do preventive work in a systematic manner in order to prevent violations of the law and our corporate guidelines. SCHOTT mainly achieves this with the help of a worldwide training program, by setting internal Compliance standards and by systematically following up on the Compliance measures that have been established, but also by sanctioning violations of the rules that apply. 

SCHOTT AG established the Compliance Office as a central Corporate Function in order to make sure that this is achieved during our everyday work. The main responsibilities of the Compliance Office pertain to the topics of Anti-Corruption, Antitrust, Data Protection, Export Control, Information Protection as well as Security. The Compliance Office is supported by regional Compliance Representatives in the United States and Asia as well as local Compliance Representatives who work for SCHOTT Business Units and sites worldwide. 

SCHOTT has also had a integrity helpline in place since 2011.

All SCHOTT employees are obligated to follow the legal and ethical guidelines during their everyday business, strategic considerations and decision processes. The SCHOTT Code of Conduct was introduced to ensure that our employees feel more comfortable in dealing with these matters and are more receptive to the individual topics, mainly to avoid damages to themselves and to the company

The rules on behavior specified in it are based on our company values as well as applicable laws and regulations and represent an integral part of our corporate culture at SCHOTT. The Code of Conduct applies to all employees of the SCHOTT Group all over the world.

The main contents of the Code of Conduct are as follows 
Global protection of our employees and the environment,
Respect for human rights and equal opportunity,
A clear position in the fight against discrimination and corruption, and
Strict compliance with the rules of fair competition.
These contents will be substantiated even further and modified to suit the unique social and legal practices in the various countries in which SCHOTT does business by relying on group-wide, regional or Business Unit-specific regulations.

The complete text of the SCHOTT Code of Conduct can be found here.

Contact: compliance.office@schott.com

For this reason, SCHOTT rejects corrupt behavior and actions that could otherwise be deemed unlawful behavior and does not tolerate such behavior. Particularly strict and transparent rules apply to the handling of invitations and gifts, external intermediaries, donations and sponsoring measures. 

For this reason, all of our employees have access to clear regulations that specify what types of contact and exchange of information with competitors are in line with the legal regulations.

Personal data will only be collected, stored and processed to the extent permitted by the law. The necessary data security measures are to be observed while doing so and the rights of the respective individuals are to be respected.

Here, SCHOTT follows all of the export control and customs regulations that apply to doing business in the respective countries. To this end, SCHOTT has set up a comprehensive, electronically supported export control system and requires that it be put to use.

We use a wide variety of training courses and communication measures to promote awareness among our employees worldwide. One of our goals is to inform employees about the risks involved in handling sensitive information when using modern means of communication and to familiarize them with protective measures. The Compliance Management System ensures continuous development.

For this purpose, we have established a worldwide whistleblower system. If there is a suspicion of compliance violations committed by SCHOTT employees in connection with their employment (e.g. violations of antitrust laws, criminal offences such as bribery, embezzlement, fraud, etc.), both employees and business partners can contact external independent attorneys (ombudspersons) in confidence and, if desired, anonymously. Of course, indications of violations can also be reported directly to the SCHOTT Compliance Office (compliance.office@schott.com).

The following three ombudspersons are working for SCHOTT, divided into regions:
Dr. Rainer Buchert (responsible for all SCHOTT sites except. USA, Mexico, Canada and Asia)
Dr. Klaus Jander (responsible for USA, Mexico and Canada)
Marian Ho (responsible for Asia)
Our ombudspersons have the task of reviewing information and forwarding the information – in anonymous form if desired – to SCHOTT for further processing. Discrimination against the persons providing information will not be tolerated.

Please note: Our ombudspersons do not perform any customer service tasks!
Do you have any questions regarding the use of the Integrity Helpline? Here you will find the answers to frequently asked questions: FAQs