Introduction
The European Union, with Directive 2019/1937, renewed the legislation concerning the protection of persons who report breaches of Union law, in order to create a minimum standard for the protection of whistleblowers‘ rights in all Member States. Italy implemented the European Directive with Legislative Decree of 10 March 2023 no. 24 (hereinafter the “Decree”).
By adopting this Policy, the company Stam Spa (hereinafter, the “Company”) intends to comply with the aforementioned regulatory provisions, as well as with the guidelines provided in this regard by ANAC (Italian Anti-Corruption Authority).
The objective pursued is to provide the whistleblower, i.e. the person who reports violations, with clear operating instructions on the subject, content, recipients, and means of transmission of the reports.
The whistleblowing procedure guarantees the confidentiality of the identity of the whistleblower from the moment of receipt and in any contact afterwards. Pursuant to Art. 5, para. 1(e) of the Decree, this policy therefore provides information on the channels, procedures, and prerequisites for making internal and external reports.

1. Reporting subjects
Reports may be made by the following parties:
a) employees, including workers who perform:
– part-time, intermittent, fixed-term, supply, apprenticeship and ancillary work (the employment relationship of whom is governed by (It.) Legislative Decree No. 81/2015);
– occasional services (pursuant to Art. 54-bis of (It.) Decree-Law no. 50/2017, conv. by (It.) Law no. 96/2017);
b) the self-employed
– with a work contract (Art. 2222 of the It. Civil Code);
– with a collaborative relationship (as referred to in Art. 409 of the (It.) Code of Civil Procedure), such as agency, sales representation and other collaborative relationships resulting in the performance of continuous and coordinated work, mainly of a personal nature, even if not of a subordinate nature;
– with a collaboration relationship that takes the form of exclusively personal, continuous work, the manner of which is organised by the principal;
c) collaborators who work for entities that supply goods or services or perform works for the Company;
d) freelancers and consultants working for the Company;
e) volunteers and paid and unpaid trainees working for the Company;
f) the shareholder and persons holding administrative, management, control, supervisory or representative offices, even where such roles are exercised on a de facto basis at the Company (e.g. members of the Board of Directors or the Supervisory Board).

The protection of whistleblowers (Art. 7 of this Policy) also applies if the report, official complaint to the judicial or accounting authorities or public disclosure of information occurs in the following cases:

a) when the legal relationship described above has not yet begun, if information on violations has been acquired during the selection process or at other pre-contractual stages;

b) during the probationary period;

c) after the termination of the legal relationship if the information on violations was acquired in the course of that relationship.

2. Subject of the report and excluded reports

The following reports can be made as indicated in the list below:

Number of employees:     with 50 or more

With Organisation and Management Model purs. to (It.) Legislative Decree no. 231/01:     yes

Subject of the report:

– offences set out in (It.) Legislative Decree no. 231/2001 (see point c below)

– violations of the Model (see point c below)

– European and national offences (see points a) and b) below)

(art. 3, para. 2(b), second sentence, It. Legislative Decree no. 24/2023)

 

More specifically, the violations listed in the table above may concern:

  1. a) infringements of national or European provisions consisting of offences in the following areas: public procurement; services, products and financial markets and prevention of money laundering and terrorist financing; product safety and compliance; transport safety; environmental protection; radiation protection and nuclear safety; food and feed safety and animal health and welfare; public health; consumer protection; protection of privacy and personal data and security of networks and information systems;
  2. b) infringements of European provisions consisting of: i) acts or omissions detrimental to the Union’s financial interests; ii) acts and omissions relating to the internal market; iii) acts and behaviour that undermine the object or purpose of the provisions of Union acts in the areas referred to above;

c) unlawful conduct relevant under (It.) Legislative Decree 231/2001 or breaches of organisation and management models.

 

3. Reporting channels: internal, external, public disclosure

The Company has set up an internal reporting channel that guarantees the confidentiality of the identity of the person making the report, that of the person involved and that of the person mentioned in the report, as well as the content of the report and the relevant documentation.

Please remember that whistleblowing reports must first be submitted using the internal channel.

Reporting through the external channel, set up and managed by ANAC, can only be carried out under certain conditions (note 1) and public disclosure under even stricter conditions (note 2), without prejudice to the possibility of reporting to the judicial authorities.

Note 1

Whistleblowers may use the external (ANAC) channel when:

• there is no compulsory activation of the internal reporting channel within the work context, or this channel, even if compulsory, is not active or, even if activated, does not comply with what is required by law;

• the reporting person has already made an internal report and it was not followed up;

• the reporting person has reasonable grounds to believe that, if he or she were to make an internal report, the report would not be effectively followed up or that the report might lead to a risk of retaliation;

• the reporting person has reasonable grounds to believe that the breach may constitute an imminent or obvious danger to the public interest.

It is suggested to keep this note when drafting the policy.

Note 2

Whistleblowers may directly make a public disclosure when:

• the reporting person has previously made an internal and an external report, or has made an external report directly and has received no response within the prescribed time limits on the measures envisaged or taken to follow up the reports;

• the reporting person has reasonable grounds to believe that the breach may constitute an imminent or obvious danger to the public interest;

• the reporting person has reasonable grounds to believe that the external report may involve a risk of retaliation or may not be effectively followed up due to the specific circumstances of the case, such as where evidence may be concealed or destroyed, or where there is a well-founded fear that the recipient of the report may be colluding with or involved in the perpetrator of the violation.

 

  1. Content and means of submitting the reports

Whistleblowing reports may be made if the following conditions are met:

–   when there is information, including well-founded suspicions, concerning breaches of national or European Union law committed or likely to be committed that affect the public interest or the integrity of the Company, as well as concerning conduct aimed at concealing such breaches

and

–   such information is learnt, or suspicions have arisen, in the context of work.

Reports that exclusively pertain to the following may not be taken into consideration:

–   objections, claims or demands linked to an interest of a personal nature of the reporting person;

–   individual employment or collaboration relationships of the whistleblower with the Company, or with hierarchically superior figures;

–   aspects of the private life of the person to whom the report refers, without any direct or indirect connection with the business and/or professional activity.

Moreover, reports that have the following characteristics are not allowed:

– specious, defamatory, slanderous or aimed solely at harming the reported person;

– concerning violations that the reporting person knows to be unfounded.

Content of the report

The report, on pain of inadmissibility, must contain:

1 the identification data of the reporting person, except for indications concerning anonymous reports, as well as an address to which subsequent updates can be sent;

2 the clear, full and detailed description of the facts reported;

3 the circumstances of time and place in which the reported fact occurred and, therefore, a description of the facts that are the subject of the report, specifying the details of the circumstantial information and, where present, also the manner in which the facts that are the subject of the report came to light;

4 the particulars or other elements that make it possible to identify the person(s) held responsible for the facts reported;

5 an indication of any other persons who may report on the facts being reported;

6 an indication of any documents that may confirm the validity of these facts;

7 any other information that may provide useful feedback on the existence of the reported facts

8 in the case of the use of the analogue channel the espress declaration that