Whistleblower Channel

What is the Whistleblower Channel?

The Whistleblower Channel is a safe and confidential space through which a person can report violations within article 2 of Law No. 93/2021 of December 20 (only available in Portuguese).

In the context of the Whistleblower Channel, violations are acts or omissions arising in the areas of:

  • Public procurement
  • Money laundering
  • Product safety and compliance
  • Transport safety
  • Environmental protection
  • Food safety for human and animal consumption, animal health and animal welfare
  • Public health
  • Consumer protection
  • Protection of privacy and personal data
  • Security of the network and information systems

Whistleblowing may relate to violations that have been committed, are being committed or which can reasonably be expected to be committed, as well as attempts to conceal such violations.

General requirements for whistleblowing:

  • Description of the facts must be as accurate and detailed as possible
  • Must have sufficient information to support the assessment of the violation
  • Whenever possible, provide objective evidence

The whistleblower must act in good faith and have a solid basis, at the time of reporting, to believe that the information is true.

To benefit from the protection conferred by the General Whistleblower Protection Directive approved by Law No. 93/2021 of December 20 (only available in Portuguese), the whistleblower must comply with the precedence regime provided in Article 7 of  this law. Therefore, as the company provides an internal whistleblower channel, any whistleblowing must always be submitted through the respective means. Furthermore, external whistleblowing shall only be admissible when the requirements of paragraph 2, of the mentioned article, are observed.

Safety

Whistleblowing is registered on its own platform to ensure:

  • Completeness, integrity and safeguarding of what is being reported
  • Confidentiality of the identity and/or anonymity of whistleblowers and the identity of third parties
  • Prevent access to unauthorized persons

The entire whistleblowing management system is based on technical and organizational measures aimed at the protection of data and other information. Namely, the integrity of the persons providing the information and the persons concerned in the whistleblowing.

The retention of information is ensured for a period of 5 year. Additionally, regardless of this period, information is retained during the pending judicial or administrative proceedings relating to the whistleblowing.

Access to the Whistleblower Channel platform is only available for duly authorized persons.

How do I have access to whistleblowing?

Confidentiality, anonymity, and transparency are the pillars of Critical Manufacturing’s Whistleblower Channel. Therefore, in the process of confidentiality and anonymity, whistleblowing must follow the process that was designed for this purpose.

Process:

  1. Submission of the whistleblowing.
  2. Preliminary assessment.
  3. Verification of the whistleblowing.
  4. Notification to the whistleblower of the foreseen or already adopted measures to pursue the whistleblowing.

Deadlines:

  1. Notification to the whistleblower on receipt of the whistleblowing: 7 days.
  2. Communication to the whistleblower of the measures foreseen or adopted to pursue the whistleblowing and respective reasons: 3 months.

Means of submitting the whistleblowing:

  1. Critical Manufacturing’s website – by filling out a form
  2. Via regular post – download the available form and send it to the following address:
    To the attention of: Whistleblower Channel Manager
    Critical Manufacturing
    Rua Engº Frederico Ülrich, 2650,
    4470-605 Moreira da Maia
    Portugal
  3. In personyou can schedule a meeting in person by filling out the online request available below.