Reportable events:
The Complaint Channel should be understood as an instrument that allows the communication of conduct that may constitute non-compliance or irregularities that may go against the interests of the European Union or constitute an unlawful act or contract to the applicable regulations.
Rights of the reporting person:
The reporting person shall have the following guaranteed rights:
- Right to anonymity: The reporting person who files a complaint through the Complaints Channel may maintain anonymity regarding his/her identity, guaranteeing the same during the process, being optional to include data that allows his/her identification through the enabled complaint form.
- Right to confidentiality: Both the content of the complaint and the identity of the informant shall be confidential, and may not be disclosed without your express consent to any person other than the personnel competent to receive and process complaints, with the exceptions established by European Union law or state regulations in the context of investigations carried out by the authorities or in the course of judicial proceedings.
- Prohibition of retaliation: The reporting person shall be protected against retaliation, even if the result of the investigation carried out verifies that there has been no breach of the interests of the Union or of the applicable regulations, provided that the reporting person has not acted in bad faith.
- Right to choose: The whistleblower may choose the complaint channel he/she considers most appropriate and may use internal or external complaint channels (competent authorities).
- Right to receive information: The reporting person has the right to be informed of the status of the processing of his/her complaint as well as the outcome of the investigations.
- Right to limited information: The reporting person shall not be obliged to provide data that is not strictly necessary to process the report and subsequently data that is not strictly necessary for the investigation may not be requested or retained. The information provided may not be used for purposes other than the investigation.
- Right to exercise data protection rights: The informant shall have the right to exercise the rights conferred by personal data protection legislation.
- Right to receive a response within a reasonable period of time: The reporting person shall receive an acknowledgement of receipt of his or her report within a maximum period of seven days from receipt of the report, unless the reporting person expressly requests otherwise or the body in charge of the investigation considers that such acknowledgement may compromise the protection of the reporting person’s identity. The term, in relation to data processing and investigation, may not exceed three months in accordance with the regulations in force.
- Right to data deletion: Once three months have elapsed since the data were entered, they must be deleted from the reporting system, unless the purpose is to preserve them as evidence of the functioning of the Compliance System model or if legal proceedings or investigations by the competent authorities are derived from them.
Imposition of disciplinary measures:
If in the resolution of the investigation it is reliably established that the facts investigated are true and are linked to irregular or unlawful conduct, the reporting person may be subject to sanction in accordance with labor legislation and the rest of the civil and mercantile obligations incurred by the member of the company’s staff, company personnel or person linked to the company.
The facts may also be made available to the competent authorities, in the event that the facts may constitute an unlawful act.
In the event that the complainant is a third party with whom there is no employment relationship (supplier, commercial agent, candidate, etc.), the applicable sanctions shall be limited to the commercial field, without prejudice to the communication of the facts to the competent authorities.
Communication of false or bad faith reports:
The complaint channel must be used in a responsible and appropriate manner. The communication of false facts, with a malicious and morally dishonest attitude, is a breach of the good faith that should govern labor relations or in the commercial sphere.
If, after the appropriate analysis, it can be concluded that the facts reported are manifestly false and that the complaint has been filed with a malicious and bad faith attitude: (i) the complaint will be closed, documenting the reasons that have led to close the file, ending the investigation work; (ii) this circumstance will be transferred to the Ethics Committee of SherpaPharma and the disciplinary action to be applied to the bad faith complainant will be decided.
Complaints channel investigation procedure:
The internal procedure for handling complaints will consist of the following phases:
Investigation phase:
Communication of the complaint:
The reporting person, in case of opting for the use of the internal Complaints Channel will have to fill in the complaint form available to him/her.
The report must be individual. In the event that several persons have knowledge of the same fact or circumstance that must be reported, each of them must do so individually through the complaint channel.
The contents required in the reporting form are as follows:
- Relationship to the company.
- Identification of the informant (unless the report is made anonymously).
- Description of the facts through a free field.
- Attachments (if applicable).
It is important that the informant provides sufficient detail about the facts, behaviors or suspicious activities, so that the Ethics Committee of the company can perform a preliminary analysis of the content, even allowing the sending of files or attachments in relation to the reported facts.
SherpaPharma will acknowledge receipt of the complaint to the complainant within a maximum period of 7 days. The company may ask the reporting person to provide additional information, if necessary. Such as, for example:
- Location where the events occurred.
- Description of the irregularity/section of the procedure for which clarification or interpretation is sought.
- Time of occurrence.
- Categorize whether it is one-off or recurrent.
- Identification of the person(s) responsible.
- Identification of the complainant.
- Details of how the irregularity came to the complainant’s knowledge.
- Documentation attached to the complaint (evidence or clues).
- Relevant comments.
- Evidence or clues: In the case of a complaint, the circumstances of the complaint should be detailed and should be accompanied, as far as possible, by supporting evidence or clues, together with the identification of other possible witnesses or workers who may have had knowledge of the facts.
Receipt of the complaint:
Only the person responsible for the complaint channel will have access to the channel.
After analyzing the information, the following statuses can be generated:
- In progress (admission of the complaint): The facts described are reportable facts that may involve an unlawful act.
- Disregarded (complaint inadmissible): The facts described do not involve an unlawful act and are proceeded to file and refer the reporting person to the most appropriate area for treatment.
Opening of an investigation file:
Once the complaint has been evaluated and admitted, the person responsible for the complaints channel will initiate the investigation and open a file.
The investigation will consist of an objective analysis of the available documentation, the gathering of evidence, the collection of evidence and its analysis. Whenever necessary, it may cooperate with internal and/or external persons, ensuring maximum confidentiality of the complaint, and the informant’s data.
The time limit for resolution shall not exceed 3 months from the expiration of the seven-day period after the complaint is made.
Exceptionally, the deadline could be extended to 6 months when necessary due to specific circumstances of the case, in particular the nature and complexity of the subject of the complaint, which may justify a lengthy investigation.
Resolution phase:
Once the investigation phase is completed, the person responsible for the complaints channel will inform the Ethics Committee of the measures proposed for the resolution of the complaint.
The Ethics Committee will establish the complaint as:
- Not Proceeding: In the event that it cannot be demonstrated that the Code of Ethics has been breached or any misconduct has taken place.
- Appropriate: In the event that the facts are proven to be true, the information will be detailed in the conclusions report and the sanctioning regime established in the Collective Agreement applicable in SherpaPharma, the labor legislation and/or the rest of the civil and commercial obligations that the person denounced has contracted will be applied.
Conclusion phase:
The person responsible for the complaints channel will prepare a conclusions report reflecting the outcome of the investigation and resolution phases.
Despite the termination of the complaint process, the protection of the informant will continue to be guaranteed.