OBJECTIVE Whistle Blower Policy This policy seeks the support of RBNL employees, channel partners and vendors to report Significant deviations from key management policies and report any non-compliance and wrong Practices, E.g, unethical behavior, fraud, violation of law, inappropriate behavior /conduct etc. WHISTLE BLOWER PURPOSE The purpose of the whistle blower policy is as follows: To encourage the employees and other parties to report unethical behaviors, malpractices, wrongful conduct, fraud, violation of the company s policies & Values, violation of law by any employee of RBNL without any fear of retaliation. To build and strengthen a culture of transparency and trust within the organization. APPLICABILITY This policy applies to all the employees of RBNL (including outsourced, temporary and on contract personnel), ex-employees, stakeholders of the Company, including Vendors (hereinafter referred to as Whistle Blower ). This policy encourages all the Whistle Blowers to report any kind of misuse of company s properties, mismanagement or wrongful conduct prevailing/executed in the company, which the whistleblower in good faith, believes, evidences any of the following: 1. Violation of any law or regulations, policies including but not limited to corruption, bribery, Theft, fraud, coercion and willful omission. 2. Rebating of Commission/benefit or conflict of interest. 3. Procurement frauds. 4. Mismanagement, Gross wastage or misappropriation of company funds/assets. 5. Manipulation of Company data/records. Page 1 of 8
6. Misappropriating cash/company assets; leaking confidential or proprietary information. 7. Unofficial use of Company s property/human assets. 8. Activities violating Company policies. (Including Code of Conduct ) 9. A substantial and specific danger to public health and safety. 10. An abuse of authority or fraud 11. An act of discrimination or sexual harassment *. The above list is illustrative and should not be considered as exhaustive. ROLE OF A WHISTLE BLOWER / COMPLAINANT The Whistle Blower/Complainant s role is that of reporting party with reliable information. They are not required to act as investigators nor would determine the appropriate or remedial action. They should also not act nor participate in any investigation activities unless warranted otherwise. PROCEDURE 1. RBNL EC member team shall formulate a Grievances Redressal Committee ( GRC ) comprising of Management Representatives for the following: 1.1. To conduct the enquiry in fair and unbiased manner; 1.2. To ensure complete fact finding; 1.3. To appoint investigating officer(s) / agencies (internal or external) if required; 1.4. To maintain strict confidentiality; 1.5. To decide on the outcome of the investigation; 1.6. To recommend an appropriate course of action and appeal if any; Page 2 of 8
1.7. Such other areas & matter that the Committee may decide upon for the furtherance of its objective; 2. Head of Human Resource shall develop procedures to facilitate the implementation of this policy and shall be the owner of the process and shall also ensure that following committees are in place: Business Whistle Blower/ Grievance Redressal Committee: A committee comprising management committee representative at Business level (no less than AVP Level) and Executive committee member representative/s. Regional Whistle Blower / Grievance Redressal Committee: A committee comprising management committee representatives at Regional Level (no less than AVP Level) and Executive committee member representative/s. 3. Human Resource function shall implement adequate reporting mechanism for ease and timely reporting. 4. The jurisdiction of the Committee is restricted to the violation of Code of Conduct and/or business ethics alleged to have been committed within one year of the receipt of complaint by the Committee. 5. It shall be the responsibility of the Regional HR Head to create the necessary awareness among all employees in all bands and make those concerned/affected known on the company s policies in place. 6. A three-tiered Committee structure i.e. at Corporate, Business and Regional level shall investigate and recommend action on unethical behaviours, malpractices, wrongful conduct, fraud,violation of the company s policies & Values, violation of law by any associate of RBNL. Any whistle blower/complainant, through written communication, complete with related evidence, can send his/her observation of actual fact(s) to one or more members of the Whistle Blower/Grievance Redressal Committee. The whistle blower/complainant may send the complaint in writing, by an email to the Whistle Blower/Grievance Redressal Committee of the level he / she belongs to, using the standard template (Refer Annexure 1 The Template for reporting below). 7. The complainant may alternatively report the incident to his / her functional head or manager who will then report it (in writing) to the relevant GRC or EC member/s. Page 3 of 8
If the breach of Code of Conduct or Values is against any member of the Business Committee the same should be reported to the CEO. 8. In case of urgent matters, the whistle blower/complainant may communicate verbally (through phone or in person) but he/she must put the case in writing at the first available opportunity. 9. The reporting should be factual and not speculative and should, to the extent possible, contain the following, in order to allow proper assessment of the nature and extent of the matter: 9.1. The alleged event, matter or issue that is the subject of the Complaint; 9.2. The name(s) of the person(s) involved; 9.3. If the Complaint involves a specific event or events, the approximate time and location of each event; and 9.4. Any additional information, documentation or other evidence available to support the Complaint. The prescribed format as per Annexure 1 Template for Reporting Violation shall be used for reporting. 10. For the purpose of providing protection to the whistle blower/complainant, he/she should disclose his/her identity. 11. Anonymous reporting shall not be entertained as it is usually impractical to investigate a complaint which has been made anonymously. However the whistle blower / complainant may seek the advice of the Committee and based on the advice sought, formally record the complaint as per Annexure 1 of this policy. 12. If a protected disclosure is received by any executive of the Company other than the CEO or any other Management Representative, the same should be forwarded to the respective Whistle Blower/Grievance Redressal Committee. 13. The following types of complaints would ordinarily not be entertained: 13.1. Illegible, if handwritten; 13.2. Vague, anonymous or pseudonymous; Page 4 of 8
13.3. Trivial or frivolous in nature; 13.4. The matters which are pending before a Court of Law, State or National Human Rights Commission or any other Commission, Tribunal or any other judiciary or subjudiciary body; 13.5. Any matter, after the expiry of one year from the date on which the act constituting violation of human rights is alleged to have been committed; 13.6. Allegation, which is not against the interests of RBNL employee as stated above; 13.7. Issue raised relates to civil dispute, such property rights, contractual obligations, etc; 13.8. Issue raised relates to service matters; 14. Upon receipt of the complaint the Whistle Blower / Grievance Redressal Committee members, after proper scrutiny, shall investigate as per the Whistle Blower / Grievance Redressal Committee Charter. 15. The member/s shall ascertain the authenticity, correctness and credibility of complaint and source, shall recommend necessary corrective measures/disposal as follows:- 15.1. Closing the complaint, if wrongful conduct remains largely unsubstantiated; and if the case is false and malicious in intent, the whistle blower / complainant would be held guilty of misconduct and appropriate action shall be taken. However, the Committee shall distinguish between mistaken reporting and malicious intent of the associate. 15.2. If charges are substantiated, or the complaint is found correct on investigation, suitable action will be suggested; and If the associate is not satisfied with the investigation he may appeal to the next level Whistle Blower / Grievance Redressal Committee. 15.3. Lessons identified/learnt shall be used for strengthening the policies and procedures. 16. The Whistle Blower / Grievance Redressal Committee based on the decisions/recommendations, shall take appropriate action immediately within a stipulated timeframe of three weeks. 17. Head Human Resource shall escalate unresolved matters to the next level depending on the nature of complaint (viz. values, sexual harassment) beyond its associated resolution timeframe. Page 5 of 8
18. The Committee shall submit periodic report in prescribed Format to the Audit Committee of the Board of Directors on the issues reported to it, from time to time for its review & perusal. SUGGESTIVE PUNITIVE ACTIONS 19. The following punitive actions could be taken against associates, where the committee finds the accused guilty: 19.1. Counselling & a Warning letter; 19.2. Withholding of promotion / increments; 19.3. Bar from participating in bonus review cycle; 19.4. Termination; 19.5. Legal suit. The above are only suggestive and the Committee may decide on the actions to be taken on a case to case basis depending on the gravity of the offence. CONFIDENTIALITY 20. Disclosure of wrongful conduct may be made on a confidential basis. Such disclosures will be kept confidential to the extent possible, convenient with the need to conduct an adequate investigation and legal stipulation. PROTECTION AGAINST VICTIMIZATION 21. No adverse action shall be taken against an associate or business associate in knowing retaliation who makes any good-faith disclosure of suspect or wrongful conduct to the GRC. Page 6 of 8
REPLY TO COMPLAINT An associate/business associate (current or former) shall not later than 30 days after being notified or becomes aware of a complaint against him/her, may protest the action by filing a written complaint with the GRC, if the associate believes the action was based on his or her prior disclosure in good faith, of alleged wrongful conduct. Page 7 of 8
Annexure 1: Template for Reporting Violation To: Grievance Redressal Committee: Violation details: a. Which aspects of the whistle blower policy have been violated? b. Who is /are the individual/ people/ functions involved? Critical Incidents and Factual Data: a. Please describe what constitutes the violation i.e. incident details. b. List supporting information/ data that you would have, that the Committee can seek from you while investigating. Date: Location: Name of the Person reporting (optional): Contact Information (including email optional): Note: Reporting done by individuals disclosing their names will be attended to first. Anonymous complaints are discouraged and would be considered only in extreme cases. or on primafacia exploration to ascertain facts. Page 8 of 8