Social Responsibility Policy

Our social compliance policy comprises standards that we have developed together with all our business partners through teamwork, based on our core principles and values. Our goal is to make the Social Compliance Policy part of the corporate culture of Bil-Han Tekstil San. ve Tic. A.Ş. To this end, social compliance standards have been established and put into practice. Alongside creating products and services, this policy commits to granting employees all rights arising from the standards within the framework of the law, complying with occupational health and safety rules, being environmentally responsible, and creating a workplace with open and honest communication where employees are respected and valued. No retaliation or punitive action is taken against employees who voice their concerns or complaints under this policy, and suggestion, request and complaint boxes are provided for this purpose. Employees may submit any opinion, request, complaint or suggestion to these boxes; the submissions are brought by the Employee Representative to the Human Resources Officer, opened and evaluated, and the necessary improvement, corrective and preventive actions are taken for areas open to improvement.

Child Labour: Out of respect for children's healthy development and their right to education, not to employ anyone under the age of 16 and to act in accordance with the procedures and principles for employing young workers,

Employment of Young Workers: Young workers are persons who have completed the age of 15 but not yet the age of 18. Our company does not employ workers in this age group, i.e. with young-worker status.

Recruitment: To ensure the continuity of the company's ethical criteria, compliance with company rules and the company's social compliance requirements is regarded as a necessary and important selection criterion alongside technical and professional knowledge, and the anti-discrimination and anti-harassment policies set out below apply from the recruitment stage onwards,

Employee Awareness: Believing that social compliance is founded on informed employees, to raise employees' awareness by informing them about their personal rights, company rules and working conditions at recruitment and at regular intervals during employment,

Freedom of Association: Freedom of association is one of the most fundamental values and important goals of the International Labour Organization (ILO). Bil-Han Tekstil Sanayi ve Ticaret A.Ş. is aware of the value and importance of freedom of association in policy-making and implementation within the company. Freedom of association has a proven track record of producing sustainable solutions, including in times of crisis and recovery. It exists in many forms, from simple information sharing to the negotiation of binding collective agreements or national social pacts. Tripartite social dialogue involves representatives of employers, workers and government in the public or private sector, while bipartite dialogue may involve only employer and worker representatives. Freedom of association may be exercised through formal bodies at national or regional level, or through more informal channels at company or local level.

Bil-Han Tekstil Sanayi ve Ticaret A.Ş. accepts, declares and undertakes to respect employees' rights to organise, to freedom of association and to collective bargaining, not to retaliate against anyone for exercising these rights, and not to offer employees any wage or payment to prevent them from exercising these rights.

This commitment is considered together with all obligations the company must follow under applicable legislation.

Working Hours: Out of respect for efficient work and human rights, to comply with applicable laws and regulations on working hours and overtime,

Wages and Payments: Taking the statutory minimum wage as the minimum on which employees can meet their living costs, to pay no wage below the minimum wage and to pay overtime with the premiums required by law,

Compliance with Laws and Other Obligations: To abide by applicable laws and regulations and to follow the rules of international social responsibility initiatives together with our customers' business partnership rules,

Discrimination: On the basis that all employees have equal rights, there shall be no discrimination in hiring, compensation, access to training or promotion, and no termination or retirement based on race, social class, religion, national origin, gender or political affiliation,

Communication: Believing that success depends on healthy communication, to carry out practices that keep connections among employees and with managers alive, build good relationships between employees and managers, and ensure these relationships endure,

Freedom of Association and Collective Bargaining: Employees may come together collectively and are free to join trade unions or legal associations, provided they comply with legal requirements. No employee's contract may be terminated, nor may any employee be discriminated against, because of membership of a union, association or group. As an employer, our primary duty is to protect employees' legal rights and to create an environment in which their rights are respected. Requests, complaints and suggestions: to establish the infrastructure needed for every employee to submit requests, complaints and suggestions, to evaluate them and provide feedback in a timely and effective manner so that employees work in a happy environment, and not to retaliate against employees for submitting requests, complaints or suggestions,

Prevention of Harassment and Abuse: To ensure there is no verbal, physical or psychological harassment or coercion, so that the workplace is peaceful and employees can work happily,

Forced and Compulsory Labour: There shall be no work made compulsory by contract or performed in exchange for debt, and all work shall be voluntary,

Prison Labour: Our workplace does not permit production in prisons or in areas where prisoners are held,

Bribery and Corruption: Offering, giving or receiving bribes, corrupt payments and/or commissions is unacceptable under any circumstances, and we act within the framework of Bil-Han Tekstil's established and communicated code of ethics,

Migrant Workers (Employment of Foreign Workers): For foreign employees working within the company: not to employ them without a residence permit, to provide employment contracts in a language they understand, not to retain their original documents at hiring or at any other time, never to employ a worker in debt bondage, and to protect foreign workers' legal employment rights,

Non-employment of migrant workers and former convicts: Despite the labour-intensive pace of the textile sector and the deadline pressure of export-focused work, our company — by management decision — does not employ workers with migrant status or former convicts, in order to protect employee comfort and workplace harmony, which are above the sector's average standards, and to prevent possible conflicts.

We observe and follow the fact that more than 4 million Syrian refugees who have arrived in Türkiye over the last nine years are employed across a wide range of jobs in the textile sector, both legally and informally. It is also a fact that, in our highly competitive sector, companies employing Syrian staff gain a price advantage. Nevertheless, in order not to compromise workplace harmony and employee comfort, our company has never employed any person with migrant status to date and is determined not to employ any migrant worker in the future.

Occupational Health and Safety: To regard people as our most valuable asset in all our activities and to make minimising all kinds of loss by creating a safer and healthier working environment our top priority,

To organise training so that all employees are aware of their individual responsibilities in this area; to provide the necessary occupational health and safety equipment; to comply with local occupational health and safety laws, regulations and requirements while also taking BİL-HAN TEKSTİL SAN. VE TİC. A.Ş. standards and rules into account; to create a communication environment in which all employees can work in line with the Occupational Health and Safety policy and to raise awareness of related work; and to identify the risks associated with occupational health and safety hazards arising from our activities and keep them under control by reducing them to acceptable levels,

Training: The training level of employees determines the overall level of the company. With this in mind, to organise in-house or external training to raise employees' occupational health and safety awareness and support their professional and personal development, and thereby to ensure the continuous development of the company through the development of its employees,

Supplier Management: Believing that all suppliers bear equal responsibility, to evaluate the social compliance activities of supplier companies, follow up the results with action plans, and monitor social compliance activities through management systems — we hereby commit.