Legal Corporate Compliance Plan for Riordan Products - Essay Example

? RUNNING HEADING: Legal Compliance Plan for Riordan Productions School Total Word Count: 2100 words (excluding heading, headers, references in-text, etc) Legal Corporate Compliance Plan for Riordan Productions Riordan Productions is a fully owned subsidiary of Riordan Industries limited, and they have yearly revenue of $54 million and annual turnover of $300 million. The organization is a production unit for many appliances, including wires, plastics, polymers, and electrical appliances. The company has its Headquarters in Dallas Texas, and has its business offices in various city’s and town’s in the United States and also in India, China, and Taiwan. Riordan attracts customers from various industries including, electronic companies, household item producers, defense, bottlers, aircraft, and even software companies. The entire vendor management and human resource management systems that Riordan uses in its various branches in the United States are with an Oracle system. The Vendor management and the HR management system are available on the Riordan website and almost all the processes are done including, placing the orders, tracking the order, accepting delivery, and process management. The management system automatically delivers e-mails to the relevant persons once a transaction gets generated through the e-mail engine. The Riordan Corporate Compliance should be created and approved by the senior management or Board of the company and stick to the regulations that may be applicable in various states the company is functioning. Third, the Compliance plan should also give importance to monitoring and auditing the system and ensuring that enforcement and breaches are addressed appropriately. In such a manner, the legal compliance plan should meet the legal standards and be in line with the legislations of that particular nation. Legal Compliance Plan Introduction Riordan Production is a manufacturing and productions company concerned with the manufacture of plastics, polymers, electrical appliances, and household appliances. It will not only sell the appliances to other businesses but also to the end consumer. Initially, Riordan was a company that supplied other companies, and it has been recently until which Riordan has entered the relationship sector. Within the company, Riordan consider meeting certain legal and ethical obligation concerned with business and comply with the standard business practice. The legal compliance document of Riordan will not only ensure that the ethical and legal obligation of the company and the manner in which it functions is known to others. This also ensure that the various stakeholders concerned, including employees, other businesses, companies, partners, and the government, are aware of these standards and the manner in which the company functions. The Company compliance plan will chalk out the legal and the ethical commitments and the set of standards that has to be followed during the business practices. The important aspects of corporate compliance are • Enterprise liability • Tangible property and intangible property (intellectual property) • Governance principles of regulatory compliance requirements • The specific international laws This compliance plan created by the company senior management and approved by the Management Board of Riordan Productions. It sets the basic framework and the manner in which the business is conducted. It shall be binding on the company management, employees, contractors, and the third parties who do business with Riordan Productions. The compliance plan will also be binding on the managers and the supervisors. Some of the important set of functions includes Standard policies and guidelines to be adhered to concerned employee management, risk identification, risk management, evaluation, monitoring, implementing corrective processes, and managing the property/assets. Legal Standards Riordan Productions is a manufacturing hub and would be appointing, supporting, and using the services of the human resource team. At the local, national, and the international level, Riordan will make efforts to comply with the legal regulations concerning the labor laws. In each of the nation that Riordan function, individuals from that nation would be eligible to work including, citizens and those who have a valid work permits including green card holders. Riordan is an equal opportunity provider in the sense that the organization would ensure that no discrimination of the workforce or candidates seeking recruitment is made at the time of recruitment or employment including discrimination made based on color, religion, race, gender, sexual orientation, nation of origin, or disabilities. It would ensure that the workforce remains diversified. The anti-discriminatory policy of Riordan would comply with Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, 1964. Riordan would take greater caution in ensuring that the protected groups are not discriminated in the working environment of Riordan or are abused by another other individual or groups from the company. Employment at Riordan Production is exclusively made based on merit, experience, and qualification. The working environment would be set and healthy, and would ensure that it complies with the OSHA standards (HealthTronics, 2008). Riordan would work toward meeting the corporate social responsibility of ensuring the protection of the environment that Riordan exists in. It would employ local skills and ensure that it does not conflict the local interests. For all the work, which Riordan conducts in the local area, it shall mandate that a social license is obtained. An important portion of decision-making of the company would be to ensure social responsibilities are met. When any dispute, conflict, disagreements, or controversies arise between Riordan and the employee(s) or between the employees, Riordan may employ alternative dispute resolution means to handle such cases, and only if the dispute still persists would litigation be utilized. However, in cases whether employee is doing any illegal or criminal activity, Riordan may report the same to the law-enforcement authorities and litigate the defaulting employee. This would be in accordance to the rules and regulations with an intention of reporting all party litigating the company has to seek legal support on its own. The right to seek legal counsel by the employees Riordan would not interfere with the right to legal counsel of the employees. The common forms of ADR are include arbitration, mediation, negotiations, conciliation, fact-finding, and others with an aim to seek justice, lower the costs over litigations and ensuring that the laws imposed are conducive to the environment it functions (HealthTronics, 2008). The company would have an effective system to report abuse, discrimination, harassment, and address any complaints. The various supervisors and managers present in the company would serve as effective 1st levels of reporting such complaints. If the complaint is against a particular manager or supervisor, then complaints should be reported to the higher authorities. Besides, Riordan Productions would create exclusive harassment committees for reporting sexual harassment, employee abuse, serious discrimination, and others. The management would train the managers and the supervisors on the harassment policy developed by the company. At the time of recruitment, all the new recruits shall be educated of the harassment policy and would be signing of acceptance of the terms and conditions. Also, in all cases of mediation or arbitration, confidentiality of the employee would be ensured, and the employee can choose the mediator of his or her choice from the anti-harassment committee. Enterprise risk management and liability (ERM) Enterprise liability creates a responsibility on the company wherein any offense committed by the constitutions of the company (including employees, management, and the Board) would be a liability of the company. Riordan would have an effective enterprise risk management system in place to ensure better value for the stakeholders, along with handling associated risks and opportunities in the company. Various aspects of ERM will be handled include aligning the risks and strategies, enhancing risk decisions, reducing losses, identifying and managing multiple risks, making the best use of opportunity, and improving the use of capital. ERM would take care of the compliance with the legal and regulatory aspects whereas ensuring the maximum reporting along with avoiding damage to reputation and such consequences (COSO, 2004). The Riordan Management would handle various liabilities present in the company in an ethical and responsible manner. If any liability code of the organization is breached, the directors and the board can be personally liable for such breaches. Riordan strongly believes in developing an environment that supports trust and unity along with ensuring that the legal requirements are met while fulfilling all the duties. Any activity where there are chances that interests in engaging in such activities there are conflicts, such activity is prohibited by the company. The directors would be responsible for the ethical management in the company, and the employees, and the managers would have to extend their support to the Directors on this behalf. The ERM policy is a responsibility of each department of the company, and the departmental head would in turn be given ownership for managing the ERM by the Directors. Aspects of the EMR are, Support from upper management Implement measures to obtain immediate and valuable results Manage difficult risks that may be affecting the company Balancing out the resources Managing risks at every level in the company Effective leadership Organize a working risk management committee risk assessment and proper planning to tackle risks Risk management, communication, and reporting Continual development and improvement (Steinberg, 2011) Riordan would comply with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) guidelines, while ensuring that the workplace does not have any undue risk to the health and the safety of the employees. Likewise, consumer complaints and consumer risks management would be handled in a professional manner and ensuring justice is given on a case-by-case basis. Safety standards would be periodically tested out by the Research and Development Division present in the company (COSO, 2004). Real and Intellectual Property management The management would have the power and the duty to protect all the property of the company, be it real, or intellectual property of the company. Some of the company resources that shall be protected are Workflows Infrastructure Materials Equipment Support system Work processes Employee information Real estate Systems management Patents Confidential information Strategic plans Trademarks Know-how Knowledge bases Databases Artistic work Literary works Corporate plans Financial information All potential IP shall be studied by the company and if found to be beneficial would further measures be taking including investing in developing a particular IP and further protecting the same through legal registration or other measures including signing non disclosure agreements with other parties. The company does not have an intention of restricting competition or the ability of any employee to get wages in case the employee leaves the company. To a reasonable extent, employees may have restrictions but the same has to be justified. The applicable laws of the land would be employed, and all the organizational property including tangible and intangible assets shall be delegated and protected. Any kind of damages done to the company property shall be handled by generating a damage report along with mentioning the parties involved in damaging the same. All property and assets that Riordan owns in various forms shall be documented with details are, Name of the property Type: tangible or intangible Market value Person responsible for managing the resources Status: Maintenance level Any stolen property Ensuring confidentiality Details regarding transfer Person involved in committing crimes with the property (such as damage) Regulatory aspects (WIP0, 2009) International Law Riordan shall comply with all the national laws that t is doing business with including Vietnam India and China, and at the same time ensure compliance with international laws. Amendments shall also be taken into consideration, and the company shall meet the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and ensure that the ISO guidelines are fulfilled from time-to-time. Besides with relation to trade the laws that may be applicable include the WTO laws, GATT, and CISG (regarding the international sale of goods). In countries where international trade laws will not apply, then Riordan shall be committed to develop and implement customized regulations regarding trade based on the preventing any kind of abuse of the national laws of that nation. Riordan shall ensure that it meets with the environmental protection standards by adhering to ISO regulations. Also before any kind of project is taken up, the EIA shall ensure that all environmental issues are addressed and the approval is given by environmental authority that may be present on that nation (International Labor Organization, 2008). Governance The OECD shall be responsible to develop the implementable legislation and to suggest the laws to be implemented. To ensure that the local guidelines are being met the OECD, 2004 regulation that concern international trade governance. A legal threshold shall be developed so that the company can develop standards and the relevant framework. The corporate governance goals shall be based on certain organizational goals (Locke Liddell & Sapp, 2003). However, in general, Riordan has to address the general problems that occur with corporate governance, including proper Informational management, Good information system supporting even smaller shareholders, and effective accounting systems (Locke Liddell & Sapp, 2003). Conclusion As far as Riordan is concerned, the company shall ensure that conflicts are prevented, and it shall aim to protect from potential risks and be reasonable for the actions of the employees. Riordan shall aim to keep all matters transparent and this compliance plan shall be a responsibility for implementing by the Board of management and the Personnel in charge. The legal officers of the company have created this compliance plan and it has been reviewed by the Board of Management. Every 2 to 3 years, the same has been reviewed, and also based on legal amendments. All information required to be collected, shall be done as per the law, and violations noted, and reported if necessary. An annual audit is be made and supervisors in charge of the compliance plan is be trained often. Bibliography Bayer (2012). Conducting the business according to applicable law and company rules, Retrieved on April 12, 2012, from Web. http://www.bayer.com/en/corporate-compliance-policy.aspx COSO (2004). Enterprise Risk Management – Integrated Framework, Retrieved on April 12, 2012, from Web. HealthTronics (2008). Corporate Compliance Plan, Retrieved on April 12, 2012, from Web. http://www.zipdf.com/view.php?id=http://www.healthtronics.com/pub/complianceplan.pdf&k=essays%20riordan%20corporate%20compliance%20plan International labor Organization (2008). Governance, International Law & Corporate Social Responsibility, Retrieved on April 12, 2012, from Web. http://www.ilo.org/public/english/bureau/inst/download/116.pdf Locke Liddell & Sapp (2003). ‘U.S. Corporate Governance Standards, Retrieved on April 12, 2012, from Web. http://www.lockelord.com/files/Publication/24390dea-a4ab-498f-a9e0-5ba6db4e2f0b/Presentation/PublicationAttachment/9f40f340-e9c1-4cda-859d-5cefc0b030f5/Corp%20Gov%20Checklist.pdf Steinberg, R. M. (2011). Using the New COSO Risk-Management Guidance, Compliance Week. WIPO (2012). Strategic Intellectual Property Management: Driving Corporate Success, Strategic Intellectual Property Management: Driving Corporate Success, Retrieved on April 12, 2012, from Web. http://www.wipo.int/sme/en/documents/pdf/intellectual_property_management.pdf Read More