At Tata Steel, we manage our businesses responsibly and in compliance with the statutory requirements of the locations in which we operate.
We do not tolerate any violation of laws, codes of conduct or internal regulations. The management is fully committed to compliance and the senior leaders serve as anchors and have a pivotal role to play in implementing the compliance interventions.
The compliance management framework is managed by the in-house compliance function. The function is headed by the Company Secretary and Chief Legal Officer (Corporate and Compliance), who is primarily responsible for overseeing and managing regulatory compliances. The function is adequately staffed with compliance managers who are responsible for establishing business and industry-specific standards in all units across the organisation. Adherence to compliance obligations is among the subjects covered in audits by the Tata Steel Internal Audit function. Observations from such audits are placed before the Audit Committee and the Board of Directors.
Ethical behaviour is intrinsic to the way we conduct our business. We comply with all regulatory laws and corporate governance guidelines and adopt the global best practices. Guided by the Tata Code of Conduct (TCoC), we have deployed the Management of Business Ethics (MBE) framework that reflects our commitment to shared values and principles.
At the beginning of each year, objectives and strategies related to the MBE are set at the corporate level, which are then cascaded to divisions and departments, ensuring alignment across the organisation. An appropriate tone is set at the top with the leaders as role models and effectively designed policies and robust processes playing a pivotal role in instilling ‘Values’ in our employees.
Whistle-blower cases* (Nos.)
| Received | Closed | Open |
|---|---|---|
|
777 |
541 |
236 |
Sexual harassment cases (Nos.)
| Received | Closed | Open |
|---|---|---|
|
21 |
15 |
6 |
Sexual harassment cases (Nos.)
| Category | Person-hours |
|---|---|
|
Officers |
26,458 |
|
Frontline employees |
5,086 |
|
Contract employees |
15,380 |
*exclusive of sexual harassment
Tata Steel won the World’s Most Ethical Company award in 2021, by the Ethisphere® Institute for the tenth time.
The governance structure of Tata Steel is an amalgamation of the oversight of the Board (through various committees) and the central Ethics Team. It includes Divisional Ethics Coordinators, Departmental Ethics Coordinators (DECs) and Ethics Champions. The Chief Ethics Counsellor has the overall responsibility of driving MBE initiatives and reports to the CEO&MD, who is also the Principal Ethics Officer. Leadership engagement on topics such as sustainability, corporate social responsibility, corporate governance and membership in different industry bodies helped the organisation augment its reputation at local, national and international levels.
Tata Steel has established the standards of ethical conduct required of its stakeholders through TCoC procedures and other applicable guidelines and polices such as Whistle-blower Policy for Directors and Employees, Whistle-blower Policy for Business Associates, Whistle-blower Protection Policy for Business Associates, Gifts and Hospitality, and Conflict of Interest Policy for Employees and Prevention of Sexual Harassment Policy. Policies on Anti-Bribery Anti-Corruption and Anti-Money Laundering were released in November 2019. We have put in place an implementation framework through focussed classroom training as well as web-based training. All our policies are accessible through the Ethics Compliance Register- DARPAN on the Company’s intranet as well as on the mobile app.
For reinforcing TCoC and the policies related to it, a multi-year training and communication programme encompassing classroom and online sessions has been implemented. These programmes are customised to different platforms based on the target audience such as leadership team, employees, vendors and contract employees. ‘Ethics Month’ was organised on the theme, Responsible Me, Responsible We in July 2020. Various events such as round-table conferences involving the senior leadership, panel discussions and townhall sessions for employees, webinars for steel processing centres. Snippet story, ‘Neeti Katha’ was released on key aspects of behavioural issues and sub-letting of the Company’s assets. All the events were conducted online.
During FY 2020-21, training and communications were conducted through online platforms due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Various sessions to cover employees and vendors were also organised. To aid clarification of ethics-related dilemma, a new portal, Kashmakash, was launched.
Business associates* trained on TCoC
*"Business Associate" here means suppliers, customers, vendors, dealers, distributors, franchisees, lessors, lessees or such other persons with whom Tata Steel has any business or transactional dealings including the Business Associate’s employees, agents and other representatives.
The effectiveness of the ethics programme is measured by the number of concerns, reported, poll surveys, MBE survey, benchmarking exercises and internal MBE assessments. The feedback is incorporated into the annual plan for MBE deployment.
