Mercedes-Benz AG
Mercedesstraße 120
70372 Stuttgart
Germany
Phone: +49 7 11 17-0
E-Mail: dialog@mercedes-benz.com
Please send queries about content on this website to any contact. You can address your concerns to us in English and your respective national language.
Represented by the Board of Management:
Ola Källenius, Chairman; Jörg Burzer, Mathias Geisen, Olaf Schick, Michael Schiebe, Britta Seeger, Oliver Thöne, Harald Wilhelm
Chairman of the Supervisory Board: Martin Brudermüller
Court of Registry: Stuttgart; commercial register no. 762873
VAT ID: DE 32 12 81 763
All information about our products can be found on your country-specific Mercedes-Benz product page.
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Human Rights
We have defined clear responsibilities and internal policies for the implementation of our risk-based management approach to the protection of human rights. We also manage this topic in compliance with globally applicable guidelines and reference frameworks. Where appropriate, we work together with selected partners and industry associations and continuously develop our due diligence approach.
The lead responsibility for managing human rights issues lies with the Integrity, Governance & Sustainability executive division of Mercedes-Benz Group AG. The member of the Board of Management responsible for Integrity and Legal Affairs works with the procurement units on ensuring human rights compliance and also receives regular information and the corresponding reports on human rights activities from the Chief Compliance Officer and from specialist units in the Social Compliance and Corporate Responsibility Management departments.
Relevant procurement units also provide information on their respective human rights compliance measures to the Procurement Council and the Board of Management members directly responsible for the units in question. This is supplemented by regular reports submitted jointly to the entire Board of Management and the Group Sustainability Board by all of the participating specialist units.
Cross-functional teams work together closely on the development and implementation of suitable preventive activities and countermeasures. The teams consist of human rights and compliance experts, as well as staff from the operational procurement units and, if necessary, from other specialist units as well. The relevant specialist units are responsible for implementing and monitoring the measures developed in each case.
We respect internationally recognised human rights and are committed to the following national and international standards, among others:
The human rights issues we focus on and which have been derived from these frames of reference to enable us to fulfil our due diligence obligations form part of our Integrity Code, our Principles of Social Responsibility and Human Rights, and the Responsible Sourcing Standards.
Our Integrity Code sets out clearly what we understand by integrity, which rules apply to everyone and which principles we follow. A central principle is respect for human rights. Mercedes-Benz Group rejects all forms of discrimination in hiring and employment, slavery, child labour, threats against people who defend human rights and other human rights violations. The protection of the fundamental labour rights is important to our company.
For us, social responsibility and the respect for human rights are essential for the long-term success of our company. Our Principles summarise our long-standing commitment to human rights. The Principles are the binding basis for the implementation of human rights standards at Mercedes-Benz and have been adopted by the Board of Management, the General Works Council and the World Employee Committee of Mercedes-Benz Group AG. In this way, the company is supplementing and further specifying the requirements with regard to human rights in its Integrity Code. At the same time, we are fulfilling a requirement of the German Supply Chain Due Diligence Act and the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.
These Principles are binding around the world for all employees of Mercedes-Benz Group as well as its group companies.
Sustainability is a guiding principle of the Mercedes-Benz strategy and thus in the core of our business activities. This also characterises the cooperation with our suppliers. We work closely with our direct suppliers, and oblige them to comply with our Responsible Sourcing Standards, to pass them on to their employees as well as to their upstream value chains and to monitor compliance with them.
Our Responsible Sourcing Standards define our requirements with regard to working conditions, human rights, environmental protection, safety, business ethics, and compliance. They derive from the requirements which we apply in our own business activities and contain minimum requirements as a contractually binding prerequisite for business relationships with our suppliers.
The Responsible Sourcing Standards identify the following human rights aspects as focal topics:
The Responsible Sourcing Standards also refer to all the other valid and internationally recognised human rights.
We encourage our suppliers to go beyond the minimum requirements and align with our supplementary expectation.
We have developed specially tailored training courses on human rights for the various departments and target groups in their respective functions. In order to further sensitise all employees to the importance of the topic and their own possibilities for influencing the respect and protection of human rights, our integrity training contains exemplary cases and complex situations from everyday work. Especially for our compliance experts, we have developed a supplementary training course in which we explain in detail our responsibility for human rights in accordance with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. Our aim is to sensitise specifically to human rights risks and enable their identification.
Mercedes-Benz is active in various associations in order to exchange ideas across all sectors and to commit itself to the topic of human rights. These include:
Feedback from our stakeholders in the human rights working group of the “Mercedes-Benz Group Sustainability Dialogue” is also important for further development of our management approach to human rights. In this group, we discuss and review our progress and challenges in implementing our management approach on an annual basis.
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