VR Ethical Principles
Ethical Principles – Our ways of working
At VR, we are committed to acting in accordance with our values in all our operations. We care, we work together and we drive improvement are our values, which also lay the foundation for our Ethical Principles. Acting in accordance with our Ethical Principles is our common effort and duty – each of us has the responsibility to build ethically sustainable culture in our workplace community.
It’s important that we all commit to these Ethical Principles. Operating in accordance with our Ethical Principles enables an operating culture based on collaboration and respect for others, as well as a healthy workplace community. The Ethical Principles also support all decision-making in our everyday work. The activities of an individual contribute to creating an effective workplace community. We are each responsible for our own actions: how we do our work and pursue our goals.
We treat each other with respect and fairness
We work together. Treating each other with respect is a prerequisite for a thriving workplace community and fruitful cooperation. All of us at VR are expected to behave appropriately in the workplace and to behave in a respectful and fair manner towards our colleagues and partners.
Co-worker skills are an important part of working together, and we want to make sure that we care about and take one another into account in our everyday work. We don’t tolerate any form of discrimination, harassment, bullying or other inappropriate behaviour. Everyone has the responsibility to intervene in inappropriate behaviour when observing such behaviour, either directly or by addressing the issue, for example, with a manager.
Diversity is our strength
Our workplace community and teams are diverse. For us, diversity is a strength that helps us operate more efficiently and understand matters more comprehensively. We foster a culture where there is room for different opinions, new ideas and even challenging discussions.
It’s important to us that all our employees have equal opportunities based on professional skills and competence. We apply our principles of equality and fairness throughout the employment relationship, from the recruitment process to the end of the employment relationship.
Safety and well-being as key priorities
We provide our personnel and partners with safe and supportive working conditions. Safety is always a priority at VR, and our goal is zero accidents. Each of us must take care of our own safety and that of our colleagues, customers and partners appropriately. We aim to prevent accidents and incidents by leading safety through consistent policies.
In addition to physical safety, we also take psychological safety into account: VR is committed to promoting the mental well-being and coping of its staff.
We comply with both the authorities’ and our own safety guidelines and maintain our safety expertise through regular safety reviews and training, for example. At VR, we all actively make safety observations. We engage the entire work community in making VR a safe working environment. Together we will continue to improve our safety culture!
We responsibly lead our people and their expertise
Managers serve as role models in complying with our ways of working. We are all responsible for compliance, but managers have a special responsibility to intervene in activities that violate our Ethical Principles and to ensure that each team member knows and understands our ways of
working and can act in accordance with them.
We are all responsible for managing our own work, meaning that management is not only the job of the senior management and managers at other levels. The quality of our operations depends heavily on the expertise of our professionals. We all manage our own work in a responsible manner and take responsibility for the development of our own competence and development in our job.
We value our customers and partners
The customer is at the core of everything we do. We foster our customer and partner relationships and treat our customers and partners with respect and fairness. We’re constantly developing our operations to better meet our customers’ needs. We communicate openly and transparently with our customers and partners.
We also require our partners to operate in accordance with our Ethical Principles. It’s important to us that our partners perform their work in a responsible manner, and we don’t cooperate with anyone who violates the law or our Ethical Principles. We always choose our partners on a professional basis.
We conduct our business fairly
We always act with integrity. We don’t offer, require or accept gifts, payments, services or hospitality that may be aimed at affecting decision-making, and that go beyond the limits of ordinary hospitality. We compete fairly in accordance with current competition law.
We avoid conflicts of interest, meaning that we always keep VR’s interests in mind in our work and choose our partners on professional grounds, and we never let our personal relationships affect our decision-making. We withdraw from decision-making if there is a conflict of interest.
We take care of information and common property
We take good care of our own and our partners’ information and property. We respect the privacy of our employees, customers and other partners and process confidential information with special care.
We protect and process personal data in an appropriate, planned and purposeful manner. The processing of personal data is always confidential, and we respect everyone’s right to privacy. We handle VR’s property carefully, for example, by taking good care of our tools and other common property.
We take responsibility for people and the environment
We are leading the way in more sustainable transport. We seek to minimise negative environmental impacts and are constantly developing our operations to affect the vitality of our environment in a positive way. The sustainability perspective also guides our procurement, and we take into account the entire product life cycle and environmental impacts in all our operations.
We also take responsibility for the people affected by our operations. We adhere to the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Rights at Work. We are committed to complying with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises on Responsible Business Conduct. We comply with labour law and current collective agreements.
We work to find increasingly sustainable solutions to improve our business operations. Every VR employee plays an important role in promoting our sustainable operations. We also always take sustainability aspects – such as the environment and human rights – into account when making everyday decisions.
We report misconduct and concerns
We encourage everyone to intervene in everyday situations where our Ethical Principles or internal guidelines are not being followed. Any activity that violates our Ethical Principles or the law must always be reported. Any issue or concern may be reported to the immediate manager, the legal
team, internal audit or the People & Culture team in the local unit or business in person or by phone, letter or email.
Reports can also be submitted through our whistleblowing channel through which the reports can be submitted anonymously, too. All reports are treated confidentially and investigated appropriately, and the necessary measures will be taken. VR protects from retaliation any person who reports an issue,
concern or non-compliance with the Ethical Principles in good faith.
We foster a culture of open discussion
We build trust through openness and transparency. Together, we create a culture of openness and trust in which it’s safe to address issues and even have challenging discussions. We communicate openly and act transparently with our colleagues and stakeholders. A culture of open discussion helps us develop our operations and build a sustainable VR for the future.
