Our activities are based on mutual respect, honesty and integrity.

We base our strategic planning and our day-to-day business practices on high ethical and legal standards. Our Business Conduct Guidelines – globally binding rules that apply to every Siemens employee and require us to abide by laws, to show mutual respect, and to act honestly and with integrity – set the basis for our conduct.
Business Conduct Guidelines (PDF, 44 KB)

Every two years, our managerial employees sign a pledge renewing their commitment to uphold these rules. We have officers at company headquarters and in our Regional Companies and Groups to whom employees can turn for advice when confronted with an ethical conflict situation.

We conduct audits to ensure that our regulations on work safety and healthcare provisions and on protection of the environment are being implemented properly worldwide, and we offer our Regional Companies any advice and support the may need. We have also introduced strategic and organizational guidelines on corporate citizenship to establish a global framework to channel the wide range of initiatives undertaken by our operating units and regional units within their local communities.

Our Principles and our Business Conduct Guidelines form part of the curricula in our training programs for junior employees. Our management training programs address corporate responsibility in its various facets and provide practical examples from within our Regional Companies and Groups.

In addition to our own guidelines, there is a number of conventions and recommendations from international organizations that are important for the conduct of multinational companies and their employees. (see sidebar). For Transparency International, a respected global non-governmental organization, we have signed a pledge to actively combat corruption.

International organizations' guidelines
- The United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948)

- The European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (1950)

- The International Labour Organization's (ILO) Tripartite Declaration of Principles concerning Multinational Enterprises and Social Policy (1977)

- The ILO's Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work (1998)

- The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development's Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises (2000)

- The UN's Agenda 21 on sustainable development (1992).