To our stakeholders:
I am pleased to inform that ELKA reconfirms its support of the Ten
Principles of the United Nations Global Compact in the areas of Human Rights, Labor, Environment and Anti-Corruption.
We use this annual Communication on Progress to describe our actions of continual improvement and the integration of the Global Compact and its principles into our strategy, culture and daily operations. We also commit to share this information with our stakeholders.
Sincerely yours,
Ing. Helena Oravcová, PhD
CEO and Member of the Board at ELKA

ELKA is committed to furthering the UN Global Compact in the area of Human Rights. Our company policy is in line with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; we fully support all thirty articles of the declaration and avow to fulfill these promises to the best of our ability.
With respect to Human Rights ELKA ´s specific company policy is fully convenient with all national as well as UN Global Compact requirements for are of Human Rights .
Our goals for the upcoming year on the issue of human rights are strictly in line with UN Global Compact Principle 1, “to support and respect the protection of internationally proclaimed human rights.” One strategy that we have devised is to include the Human Rights topic into ou Skill Matrix and issue a targeted staff training on the notion of human rights that includes an overview of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. We want to be sure that our staff is aware of potential human rights abuses.

To secure that ELKA is abiding by the UN Global Compact’s second principle, to make sure we are “not complicit in human rights abuses”, we have a regular monthly employee committee meeting. This meeting takes pace in the form of open discussion where employees could talk about their thoughts about the company’s treatment of individuals as well as allows them free opportunity to comment on the human rights situation at ELKA.. In case anything negative is discovered, we have the opportunity to create an actin plan to deal with the situation.

ELKA has had no incidents of Human Rights violation in the time since initial application for the United Nations Global Compact. The president and CEO, Mrs. Helena Oravcová, regulary visits monthly employee committee meeting We beleive that our proactive attitude, as well as our commitment to the UNGC are indicative of our zero tolerance for human rights violations.

ELKA is committed to furthering the UN global Compact in the area of Labor Rights. We support the ILO’s 1998 “Declaration” as well as its “Four fundamental principles and rights at work.” In addition to the ILO’s proclamations we also are in strong support of Articles 23 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Everyone, without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work. Everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests.
ELKA fully support Article 24 that proclaims, “everyone has the right to rest and leisure, including reasonable limitation of working hours and periodic holidays with pay.”
Our company policy follows the rules set out by the Slovak law which among other right states that Slovak workers have the right to unionize or join existing labor unions, there is a nominal 40-hour workweek, and the amount of overtime that employers may request is limited. We supersede these laws because ELKA also provides non-wage benefits such as transportation and meals, cultural and sport activities, extra personal training or compensation for these.
Furthermore on the issue of discrimination, ELKA, strongly supports Article 7 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which states, “All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law. All are entitled to equal protection against any discrimination in violation of this Declaration and against any incitement to such discrimination.” ELKA does not discriminate and take all necessary actions to ensure against discrimination in employment, recruitment, advertisements for employment, compensation, termination, upgrading, promotions, and other conditions of employment against any employee or job applicant on the bases of race, creed, color, national origin, or sex.
ELKA ´ s goals for the 2011-2012 year are to continue with our non – discrimination policy to support employees and potential new employes of any race, creed, color, national origin, or sex to be or become a member of ELKA team.

How ELKA secures the realisation of its policy in the area of discrimination is through a monthly employee committee meeting, , new employee education and skill matrix program.Should an issue arise, the ELKA management works with the Personal Manager, to find a resolution.

As of the time of application there were no incidents of violations of the Global Compact Labor principals. The management feels that the lack of an issue is demonstrative of the company’s high regard for labor rights and its continuing attempts to educate company employees about their rights.
The organisation structure of the company demonstrate the diversity factors. With a workforce of 108 employees, the age diversity ranges from 20-61, with the following age break down, 27 individuals from 20-30, 21 individuals from 31-40, 38 individuals from 41-50 and 22 individuals age 51 and over. The spread over variety of ages helps our company because we need individuals with different level of experience to realize our goals. Additionally, of the 108 individuals, 37 are female.

ELKA is fully committed to furthering the UN global Compact in the area of Environmental Protection. As a company producing the environment friendly products, ELKA is on the very forefront of supporting programs that encourage environmental protection. It sis one of our priorities to protect the natural environment.
ELKA is very creative in its application of environmentally friendly policies. Our main target in this area is “being green”. There are a variety of ways in which we are trying to “green” ELKA. One of the ways is with respect to transportation. ELKA provides financial incentive to individuals that use public transportation to come to work in the form of monthly bus passes. Also it relieves congestion on the roads.
ELKA also activelly work on recycling of materials and separation of scraps.
We produce electric oil filled radiators that are very friendly with green environment.
ELKA ´s 2012 goal with environmental protection are first to reduce, then reuse and finally recycle by 15%. By reducing our consumption, such as in the case of paper, we can lessen our impact. In our office we have started to use a lot of paper implementing a policy in which both sides of the paper must be used for documents therefore we can decrease our use by half. Secondly we are reducing our use of paper overall by trying to have all documents in softcopy form. Unless absolutely necessary we try not to work with hard copies.

ELKA realise this policy by working with employee in the area of education, as well as investing in new energy-saving technology and recycling programs.

ELKA do its best to be in harmony with the UN Global Compact goals. Although our goal was to reduce paper consumption by 15%, we are happy to report that our consumption has been reduced by 18% over the past year. Examples include, turning computers off during meeting times, making a full pot of coffee or tea rather than individual cups, ensuring all unnecessary lights are turned off when not in use and many other small changes that have helped make our company more environmentally friendly.

ELKA is committed to furthering the UN global Compact in the area of Anti-Corruption. The country of Slovakia is a party to the UN convention against corruption and both ELKA and its employees are supporting this document.
ELKA has a zero-tolerance policy for corruption, bribery and extortion. In doing business anywhere in the world, ELKA nor any person associated with the company may offer, pay, promise, authorize or receive any bribe, kickback or other illicit payment.
In employee orientation, employees are given education about what to do should they encounter an issue within the company that deal with corruption, the employee SKILL MATRIX involves this issue as well.
ELKA ´s 2012 goals for the company are to continue to provide education for all level of employees up to management about corruption as well as what to do if one should encounter it.

ELKA provides employees education about what to do in case one witnesses corruption as well as the confidence of an employee-appointed person – General Manager to assist with matter of corruption. Employees are referred to in-house as well as external agencies that may offer them assistance on these matters.

ELKA is pleased to report that there have been no incidents of corruption alleged at the company from either internal or external agencies. Because of the company’s zero-tolerance policy, it is obvious that there is a great deal of social and legal pressure not to participate in such acts.