M
YTILINEOS Group complies with the
national laws and the international
guidelines and industry standards applicable
to its activity areas in connection with the
design and production of its products and
the methods it employs for their promotion
and marketing. Our Group places particular
emphasis on the quality of its materials, prod-
ucts and construction projects and applies
innovative production processes that im-
prove the quality, safety and environmental
impacts of the final product.
The strict compliance with the laws and reg-
ulations governing the manufacture of
products; the adherence to the principle that
no product is signed off to the next pro-
duction stage unless the quality criteria of
the previous stage have been met; the strict
implementation of the procedures under the
EN ISO 9001 Quality Management System;
the development of a Hazard & Operabili-
ty (HAZOP) Study for operational risk
analysis; and the staffing of the Quality Con-
trol Departments with experienced person-
nel who are provided with continuous train-
ing, are some of the fundamental aspects of
the specific policies on product quality and
safety applied by our subsidiaries in the Met-
allurgy & Mining Sector as well as in the
Construction & EPC sector.
In the Metallurgy & Mining Sector, ensuring
that mining and processing of natural re-
sources take place in a responsible and sus-
tainable way is at the core of our commit-
ment to duly manage our product and a crit-
ical stage the defines the level of the qual-
ity offered to our customers. Key aspects of
the management of our products are the
technology upgrades of our machinery, the
use of the strictest technological specifi-
cations and processes and the minimisation
of the solid and liquid waste from our pro-
duction activities. For the last 50 years,
ALUMINIUM S.A. has been synonym to
the impressive evolution of the metallurgi-
cal sector in Greece and its current pro-
duction and commercial processes are on a
par with those of the world’s top metallur-
gical industries. The quality of its products
and the provision of technical support and
customer service are areas of continuous de-
velopment.
Indicative of the company’s efforts in this
area is that, in response to market needs and
the requirements of competition, it invest-
ed in the construction of an airslip tech-
nology casting unit in its plant’s Cast
House. This investment brought an impres-
sive improvement in the quality of the end
product and reduced stock by minimising the
non-usable part of each aluminium billet,
thus increasing the plant’s production flex-
ibility.
In addition, the company has obtained the
ISO 9001:2008 Quality Certificate for its
products, while its quality control laboratory
has been accredited by Hellenic Accredita-
tion System S.A. (ESYD S.A.) in accordance
with the requirements of the ISO
17025:2005 International Standard, for
the chemical analysis of bauxite, alumina
(both hydrated and calcined), and of
aluminium and its alloys. This accreditation
concerns the Quality Management System
of the Laboratory and to its technical com-
petencies and overall adequacy for carrying
out tests in the areas for which it has been
accredited.
50
the Internal Regulations of the company
and of the Group which have been jointly ap-
proved or agreed, (c) recognition of the
need for mutually acceptable compromises in
negotiating the terms and conditions of the
collective bargaining agreement and (e) free-
dom of expression in connection with voicing
opinions on labour issues.
METKA S.A. encourages the dialogue with its
employees and with their legal representatives
and applies fully all the provisions of the
labour laws or business agreements, seeking
always to maintain labour peace and the best
possible climate in labour relations. In its busi-
ness units, the Management of METKA S.A.
is communicating with the official Union (Vo-
los Plant), which it recognises as the lawful
representative of its employees, and holds reg-
ular meetings inviting discussion on any issues
of interest in order to reach agreement as to
their resolution. During 2011, a company-
level agreement was signed between the
Employees’ Union of the Volos Plant and the
Company, whose terms are more favourable
for employees than the corresponding pro-
visions of the labour legislation in force and
which remains in effect despite the adverse
conditions in the economy.
Furthermore, in the Construction & EPC
Projects sector MYTILINEOS Group operates
business units abroad and collaborates with
suppliers in various countries (including de-
veloping ones), a situation that increases the
risk of occurrence of incidents involving re-
strictions on the freedom of association and
collective bargaining. All the contracts which
our subsidiary METKA S.A. concludes with its
supply chain actors contain clauses on the ad-
herence to the applicable national laws and
statutory rules and regulations, and on the
strict compliance with the provisions of the
labour laws, in order to ensure the protection
of labour rights. In particular, the contracts
with suppliers or subcontractors with which
the company maintains business associations
include an explicit clause on safeguarding
wages pursuant to the applicable laws and on
maintaining safe work conditions for em-
ployees, together with provisions on the
protection of the freedom of association and
collective bargaining.
Finally, although no incidents were reported
involving violations of these labour rights by
our key suppliers and business partners, our in-
tention in issuing the “Code of Conduct for
the Suppliers and Business Partners of
MYTILINEOS Group” is to put in place a for-
mal framework in support of our efforts to sys-
tematically promote the freedom of associ-
ation to our supply chain actors.
6.12 PRODUCT QUALITY AND SAFETY
