Ethical Business at Oil Analysis Laboratories

Although not a global multi-national organisation, Oil Analysis Laboratories believes that the bar of expectation should be set at the highest level in its ethical responsibilities as an organisation.

When deciding how to set the vision for our future business relationships, we saw the frameworks established by organisations such as the UN for global multinationals in their 10-point plan as a great place to start in building our practices. We have taken these core principles and related these to our much smaller-scale practices.

Our staff should always consider these aspects when dealing with our customers, colleagues and suppliers to ensure we do good in the world. On top of this, we added an additional element called the “Do what is right”, to ensure even for areas not covered in other frameworks we always try to do the most ethical thing in all our business decisions.

Do what is right, no matter what

Doing the right thing is a key business principle in all that we do. Even where it is not necessarily commercially advantageous to do so, doing the right thing should supersede other business practices. An example is our Learn Oil Analysis foundation, where we train those for free in over 150 countries worldwide in oil analysis, condition monitoring and reliability for free. Commercially, placing all this content behind a paywall would be the best option, but helping people all over the world (including other laboratories including our competitors) to have more reliable machinery is a cornerstone of what we do. Oil Analysis reduces failures, saves money, reduces waste and improves environmental compliance.

Human Rights and common decency

Our business at all times will uphold the rights of others including internationally recognised human rights. We shall at all times treat our suppliers, customers and colleagues with the respect they deserve.

Our business shall make every effort to ensure they do not deal with companies or state actors that commit human rights violations or companies that do so in their supply chains. This includes severing business dealings with any country or organisation found in violation of such rights. We block access to our training materials and sampling services to regions on the at-risk list and internationally seen to be committing human rights violations.

Above and beyond the UN requirements, we actively monitor our suppliers and customers for evidence of unethical business practices in the news and media and challenge them accordingly.

Labour and supply chain vetting

We, as a company, uphold the freedom of association and the right to collective bargaining should our employees wish to join such bodies. To build upon this our organisation adopts employee representation at board level decisions to ensure decisions are embraced at every level of the organisation and to foster an inclusive culture.

All overtime in the business is optional and as would be expected, we monitor our supply chains closely for any potential risks of forced, child or compulsory labour with all our suppliers being asked to comply with our modern slavery policy.

At Oil Analysis Laboratories, we believe in respecting others no matter their background, gender, sexuality, age, race, disability or any other potential differentiator. Discrimination and bullying are a 2 strike disciplinary policy, with the first incident resulting in a verbal or written warning and a subsequent incident within five years potentially leading to termination of employment. Staff should work on the principle that if they can imagine anyone being offended by their actions, then the manner IS offensive. In our supply chain, we operate a one-strike policy in that suppliers found to be discriminatory and or bullying to their workers will be asked to demonstrate a corrective action within a month or risk termination of a contract.

Environment and showing care for our planet

We believe in working in a risk-averse environmental impact society where if something could be an impact, no matter how unlikely, we take measures to mitigate the risk. We believe in promoting greener operations in all that we do even in areas not required to do so, such as motion-sensitive lighting, solar generators for home workers to offset their carbon footprint from working at home etc. Further details of how we adopt these policies can be found in our environmental policy.

Maintaining Integrity

Our business at all levels works against corruption in all forms, including extortion and bribery. Even in industries where direct corruption is not present, but, unsavoury practices such as very excessive corporate hospitality are common e.g. taking customers on holidays before signing contracts etc we at Oil Analysis Laboratories work on the principle it is better to lose a contract WITH integrity than to win one without integrity. You can find out more in our anti-bribery policy.

I pledge to ensure our company always abides by these moral values:

R. Cutler – Director

Policy last issued and owned by Mr. Cutler 1/8/2022. Latest version can always be found at oilanalysislab.com. Any other versions including paper copies are to be treated as uncontrolled.