Compliance reports and investigatory procedure

All the Company’s stakeholders, be they employees, customers, suppliers, the community or competitors, are invited to report their complaints on the activities undertaken by our organization through the following channels:

  1. Contact in person or by phone the Head of Compliance or any member of the senior management of the Company, who must inform the reported case immediately, in written, to the Compliance Committee.
  2. E-mail to the Head of Compliance (compliance@ultranav.cl).
  3. Through the Whistleblowing Platform which can be accessed on the WEB page of the Company.

As far as possible, the report must indicate the names, surnames and identification numbers (I.D.) of the person subject of the report, the position held in the Company and hierarchical dependence; detailed relations of the facts subject of the report, indicating dates and time.

All cases reported by the indicated channels, must be communicated immediately to the members of the Compliance Committee, with a copy to the Chairman of Company. The Compliance Committee shall appoint as investigator of the reported case a competent and impartial person to study these subjects. All the reported information shall be treated as confidential. The Company guarantees that no retaliation shall be taken against the persons that file a complaint.

Furthermore, the complaints received regarding events occurred on board of vessels owned by Ultranav or its subsidiaries, must be immediately communicated to the respective DPA (“Designated Person Ashore”), so that necessary measures can be taken to safeguard the vessel and its crew.

The investigator shall have a 30 days period to conduct his investigation, term that may be extended by the Compliance Committee for up to another 30 additional days.

In the first 5 days since the reception of the complaint, the investigator may suggest to the Compliance Committee that the case be derived to the respective Labor Inspection Office, because of existence of inabilities inside the Company caused by the reported information, and when the Company considers that there is no qualified personnel to develop the investigation.

Received the report and as long as this is not derived to a Labor Inspection Office, the investigator shall notify the subject of the investigation, personally, in a period of 5 days from the reception of the report, provided that such notice does not hamper the collection of information and evidence, from the beginning of an investigation procedure. In serious cases, in which there are signs that indicate the involvement in a criminal offence, the investigator may proceed without any notice by forwarding the information directly to the competent authority.

The investigator will summon the involved parties, in order to ensure that everyone involved is heard and may provide the evidence that support their statements.

The investigator, according to the initial information at hand, may request the management the adoption of some provisional measures, such as the separation of physical spaces between the parties involved in the case, reorganization of working time and patterns, or the reassignment of one of the parties, in consideration of the severity of the reported facts and the working conditions.

Every investigation process shall be provided in written or by encrypted digital media that guarantees integrity and confidentiality of said information, leaving a record of the actions performed by the investigator, of the statements made by the parties involved, of the witnesses and evidences that they may provide. Strict confidentiality of the investigation shall be maintained.

Once the investigator has concluded the stage of collecting the information, through the channels indicated in the second paragraph, he will proceed to issue an Investigation Report about the existence of the alleged facts and, when applicable, a proposal of applicable sanctions. The sanctions may be a verbal or written warning and/or fine, which shall not exceed one fourth of the daily gross remuneration of the offending employee, notwithstanding the employer’s authority to terminate the contract of employment if the infringement establishes a causality for extinction of the employment relationship enshrined in the current legislation.

The Investigation Report must be provided in written, must be properly supported, always maintaining the confidentiality and restrain of the involved parties in the case, and must contain the identification of the involved parties, the witnesses who testified and the evidence provided, an interplay of facts presented, the conclusions reached by the investigator and the measures and sanctions proposed for the case. In case the facts have characters of criminal offense and internal sanctions are not sufficient, the record shall be reverted to the competent authorities.

Concluded the investigation stage and issued the report, the Compliance Committee shall acutely evaluate the investigator’s report and adopt the measures suggested or the ones considered pertinent considering the gravity of the facts.

The final decision of the Compliance Committee including the measures and sanctions proposed, shall be notified in written to the subject of the investigation and shall be kept in the files of the respective Human Resources department of the Company for the period established by internal policy regarding personal data protection.

The conclusions of the internal investigation regarding complaints of sexual harassment, must be reverted to the Labor Inspection Office in the period of 5 working days from the expiration of the term indicated in the sixth paragraph.

The observations made by the Labor Inspection Office regarding complaints of sexual harassment, shall be deemed by the management of the Company and necessary adjustments to the report will be adopted, which will be notified to the parties no later than the fifth day of received the observations from the supervising organism. The measures and sanctions proposed shall be of immediate application or on the dates that the same report indicates, which cannot exceed of 15 days.

The party affected by a measure or sanction, may use the general appealing procedure when such sanction is a fine, meaning, may claim the application before the Labor Inspection Office.

Considering the gravity of the verified facts, the Company may adopt preventing measures such as separation of physical spaces between the parties involved in the case, reorganize working time and patterns, or the reassignment of one of the parties, or other considered pertinent and the sanctions stipulated in this Regulation, by applying a combination of preventing measures and sanctions.

If one of the involved parties consider that some of the measures imposed by the Compliance Committee are unfair or disproportionate, they may appeal regarding these measures before the general manager of the Company or turn to the Labor Inspection Office.

The Company commits to respect in every moment the fundamental rights of the reporter and the subject of the investigation. The Company will seek to maintain confidentiality regarding the identity of the reporter, the witnesses and other people involved in the investigation and of the whole investigation, until the procedure becomes public. In any case the reporter’s confidentiality must protected during all the stages of the investigation, even if this has concluded. The Company will ensure that all evidence collected during the investigation is preserved.

Status of whistleblowing reports and queries