Commitments

A diverse workforce provides the inspiration and innovation on which our business depends. Roche is committed to create an environment that encourages and supports diversity, to share new ideas, new ways of working, and bring out the best in our employees.

As a multinational company, Roche has a tradition of employing people from a diverse range of nationalities and ethnic backgrounds. The Group employs people from 139 countries. At our corporate headquarters in Basel, 58% of our employees are foreign nationals from 71 different countries. More than half of our sites outside Switzerland are headed by general managers from the local country, and 75% of other management positions are held by locally-recruited employees.

There has been an encouraging rise in the proportion of women employees at Roche in recent years. Each year since 2000 Roche has recruited more women than men and the percentage of women employees at Roche has risen from 42% in 2004 to 46% in 2008.

The percentage of women in management has also increased. In 2008, women held 37% of all management positions. Our affiliates in Austria, Norway, Slovakia, Slovenia, the Philippines and Thailand are all headed by women. Women occupy 9 of the Group’s top 120 positions.

Due to the nature of our business we do not consider any of our operations to be at risk of human rights violations such as child labour, forced or compulsory labour, or infringements of indigenous rights. All of our operations respect the right of employees to freedom of association and collective bargaining as set out in our employment policy. Employees can choose to be represented by unions, works councils or similar organisations including the Roche Euroforum, where employees from every Roche company in Europe are represented.

Every Roche site has a human resource manager responsible for ensuring compliance with these principles. At Group level, our Group Compliance Officer deals with all infringements and reports directly to senior management. They submit regular compliance reports to the Audit and Corporate Governance Committee. Many sites, particularly in developing countries, have standards in place that are even more rigorous than those set out in the Group's Employment Policy.

All Roche companies and affiliates respect the following basic principles:

• Roche condemns all forms of forced or child labour. Roche tolerates the employment of juveniles only where their employment is lawful and only under conditions which adequately safeguard their well-being.
• Roche does not tolerate any form of workplace discrimination based on gender, race, age, skin colour, religion, marital status, sexual preference, heritage or physical or mental disability, nor do specific Roche sites tolerate any other forms of discrimination prohibited by law or regulation in the countries or localities where they operate.
• Roche does not tolerate any form of psychological, physical or sexual harassment or any other violation of the dignity and respect of employees in the workplace. Should an employee be subjected to harassment, his or her supervisor or manager has a duty to ensure that it ceases immediately. Employees are requested to report incidents of harassment to their manager or human resources department at once.
• Roche respects the right of all employees to join a legally recognised employee association and will comply with all laws relating to employee representation. We strive to set up and maintain an open dialogue with employee representatives.
• Roche is committed to observing all regulations in the area of health and safety at work, not only in respect of all its employees but also in respect of anyone else potentially affected by its activities. Similarly, employees must comply with the health, safety and environmental regulations currently in force at Roche.