2021-03-11

To our stakeholders:

I am pleased to confirm that AB VILKMA reaffirms its support of the Ten Principles of the United Nations Global Compact in the areas of Human Rights, Labour, Environment and Anti-Corruption.

In this annual Communication on Progress, we describe our actions to continually improve the integration of the Global Compact and its principles into our business strategy, culture and daily operations. We also commit to share this information with our stakeholders using our primary channels of communication.

Sincerely yours,

Giedrė Plačiakytė
General Manager

AB VILKMA fully complies with European Union laws as well as with Lithuanian constitution.
At AB VILKMA there is no child labor, we fully comply with gender equality and forbid human trafficking. Our company has its own code of conducts, which is needed to be read and signed by each employee.
With all of our biggest partners we sign ethical code of conduct in order to make sure all the partners are following the ethical principles of the workplace and we are following theirs. Such conducts are introduced to and available to all of our employees.

During COVID-19 crisis we re-evaluated our policies, revised all the procedures and re-collected all the signatures from our employees in order to make sure that our policies and human right principles (communication, ethics) apply even during pandemic, where most of the workers are working from home.

In the upcoming year we are planning to strictly keep up with our policies and ethical principles as well as review such policies in our yearly/quarterly review sessions.

In our company we do have a suggestion box where all of our employees are able to drop in their suggestions or concerns/complaints.

Our Human Resource manager is assuring our company's policies are being followed. Our company has an improvement book which is installed in to our IT system and each of the employees are filling it up as soon as they see that someone is not complying with our company's policies. This affects all the principles and rules in our company.

We analyse our Improvement book each Monday during the management meeting, where we thoroughly discussed the roots of the problem and what actions must be taken in order to prevent the problem happening again.

The detailed analysis of our Improvement book is reviewed by our Senior Management, where we analyze the incidents based on quarters, and adjust our strategies based upon that.

Our company upholds full freedom for workers association. We have a separate rule book, where all the employees must read and follow, marked with their signatures. This book has our Labour rules written in detail, all of them comply with European Union and Lithuanian Laws.
Our company forbids forced or compulsary labour. Our workers have full rights and possibilities to leave workplace with early notice if some personal issues/needs arise.

Our company has a suggestion box where all the workers can anonymously raise questions/complaints.

During COVID-19 all of our workers were given free covid-19 tests provided by the company. Company also provided and applied disinfection measures in all the areas of our facilities, provided protective masks. If any health concern arises, (someone from acquaintances is affected) - employee is released from his work until he performs a covid-19 test. This rule is non-negotiable in order to ensure the safety of all of our employees.

Our company is audited yearly, overseen by the directory of Lithuanian companies, social insurance facility - where we send our monthly reports regarding our employees and their paychecks. It is fully complying with Lithuanian and European Union laws.

Our company is audited yearly (we have ISO9001 audit). Also, many of our partners are part of Fair Wear Foundation - all of our employees are instructed and have a free right to always consult / inform fairwear organization if some of their principles stop applying in our company.

Each quarter our senior management is reviewing HR analysis and investigating cases in our Improvement book, related to labor principles.

AB VILKMA is in the process of ISO 14001 certification - installing standard for environmental management systems. We are constantly working with communication with our clients in order to assure minimum waste and full material leftover usage. In the future (up to 2022) we are planning to obtain GOTS certifications as well.

in 2021 obtain ISO 14001 standard
in 2022 start obtaining GOTS certificates

All of our clients must comply with AB VILKMA environmental policies - assure full usage / minimizing of raw material leftovers. Company sales and supply strategies are focused in obtaining as much sustainable brands and partners as possible in the year of 2021.

Anti-corruption, anti-extortion and anti-bribery rules and practices are described in detail in our written company's policy book - which must be read and signed by all the employees.

AB VILKMA complies with all the European Union and Lithuanian anti-corruption and anti-bribery laws.

Our company has a suggestion box, where all the workers can drop in their concerns regarding overseen bribery or corruption practices. All of the employees have a free right to write a complaint to our CEO or HR.

If any corruption or bribery practices/risks occurs - HR must inform senior management. Situation must be thoroughly analyzed, action plan - created and delivered. Such practices never occurred in AB VILKMA before, in such case - senior management would follow all the procedures written in our company's policy book in order to prevent such practices.