Human Rights
Together for Human Rights
At Infineon, we are committed to respecting human rights and protecting the environment in our own business areas and across our global supply chains.
Together with our partners we stand for human rights and environmental protection.
Our commitment and expectation
Compliance with internationally proclaimed human rights and labor standards is a matter of course for us. We support and respect international standards and principles, such as the International Bill of Human Rights and its Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Fundamental Principles of the International Labour Organization (ILO), the principles of the UN Global Compact, and the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. When setting up the risk management system, we pay special attention to potentially affected and vulnerable groups such as children, women, migrant workers, own employees, employees of third parties and local communities.
Our commitment is firmly anchored in our corporate culture through guidelines and principles that apply to all stakeholders. This includes our Human Rights Policy, Corporate Social Responsibility Policy (CSR) and Business Conduct Guidelines:
- Our Human Rights Policy supports our global Corporate Social Responsibility framework (CSR Policy) in the focus area of human rights and includes a detailed description of the Infineon priorities and how Infineon promotes human rights in its business activities and with our business partners worldwide. The policy applies to Infineon and all affiliated companies.
- Our CSR Policy applies to all our business relationships with our stakeholders and describes our strategic CSR focus areas and our voluntary commitment to fulfill our human rights and environmental obligations. The policy guides us in our everyday business activities. Both our strategic objectives and our daily actions are always based on these high ethical and legal standards.
- Under our Business Conduct Guidelines, we commit ourselves to upholding international human rights and labor standards, including protection of personal dignity and the privacy of every individual. They are an important foundation for our everyday activities and apply to all employees and members of corporate bodies worldwide when dealing with one another, as well as with our customers, investors, business partners and the public. All our employees around the world receive regular training on the Business Conduct Guidelines.
- In order to ensure responsible business along our global supply chain, we require our suppliers to comply with all applicable laws, including laws on human rights and fair business practices in our Supplier Code of Conduct. Only suppliers that have committed to our basic principles can enter into a business relationship with us.
Our fields of action
Our Human Rights due diligence in our own operations and our supply chain
We fulfill our responsibility to individuals and the environment with appropriate and effective risk management measures.
We carry out risk analysis annually and when necessary on an ad-hoc basis (e.g. mergers, acquisitions) in our own business areas as well as in our supply chains. In addition, we conduct risk analysis based on substantiated knowledge of risks related to human rights or the environment (e.g. in case of incidents reported through our Integrity Line). We also rely on external data (e.g. country and industry risk indicators, media screening) and external service providers (e.g. for standardized self-assessment questionnaires) when mapping and assessing risk in our supply chains and our own operations.
All identified risks are minimized by preventive measures (e.g. development plans, training, contracts, etc.) that cover, to a reasonable extent and after prioritization, the entire company as well as our suppliers.
Where there is a suspicion of human rights violations, concerns can be raised by any stakeholder (e.g. employees of Infineon and of any other business partner or third party) to either our Human Rights Officer or Compliance through email or surface mail, or anonymously through our whistleblower hotline Infineon Integrity Line. Inquiries and comments are treated confidentially, include a non-retaliation policy and are followed up by the team of our Human Rights Officer. Where necessary, corrective actions are taken to solve problems at an early stage and to prevent more serious consequences for the individuals concerned. In the most recently completed risk analysis of our last fiscal year, we did not identify any human rights violations caused or contributed to by Infineon. No violations were identified in our supply chains either.
Any indication of a possible human rights violation or confirmed violation of human rights in our supply chain or our own business areas is investigated and addressed without undue delay. We define remediation together with the respective supplier or party and stakeholders to prevent, minimize and, if possible, put an end to the violation (e.g. trainings, collaboration with industry initiatives). For more details refer to the Complaints Procedure.
We review our risk management process once a year and on an ad hoc basis to confirm the effectiveness of this process, and where required, continue further development of the process.
Progress on implementation of the Infineon Human Rights Policy, including all identified risks, defined preventive measures and their effectiveness, and the effectiveness of our risk management system, is reported annually to the Infineon Management Board.
Infineon publishes information annually in the Infineon Sustainability Report on the implementation of human rights within the company and at business partners and reports to authorities on the implementation of human rights and environmental due diligence obligations.
Consult our Human Rights Chapter on our Sustainability Report pages 17-18 to know more about our activities.
