If you see something, say something!

In addition to all Bayer employees, the Speak Up Channel is open to any third party who would like to report a possible compliance violation. This applies irrespective of whether the third party has a business relationship with Bayer or whether their own rights are affected.

Besides customers, employees of direct or indirect suppliers, residents around local sites, trade unions and NGOs, for example, are also expressly entitled to submit reports.

We encourage Bayer employees to raise your concern with someone in your organization, as they may be in the best position to promptly and fully address your concern. If you are not comfortable doing so, do not know who to contact, would like to remain anonymous or believe your management cannot or will not effectively address your concerns, you should feel free to make a report to the Speak Up Channel.

Convercent offers two easy options for you to anonymously report issues. The anonymous reporting services are available 24-hours a day, seven days a week.

• Independently report issues via the Internet at www.convercent.com/report.Options are available to display the report form in your preferred language.
• to report the issue with the help of a Convercent call center representative and language interpreter. The call center supports more than 300 languages. Additional international dialing instructions can be displayed in your preferred language at www.convercent.com/report.

Convercent is a completely independent service provider with experienced and impartial staff who runs the Bayer's Speak Up Channel. A professional operator located in Convercent’s call center will answer your call, listen and document your concern and submit a report to our global Compliance Department.

Web-Reports, via www.convercent.com/report, can be filed in any language.

Telephone reports may require the use of a third-party interpreter who will assist you in communicating with the Hotline operator during your call. Convercent operator initially will answer your call and greet you in English language, but then will play you a recording in your local language asking you to stay on the line until the interpreter can join the conversation. Note that depending on the language and availability, it may take some time for an interpreter to join the conversation. Please stay on the line and do not hang up, as your report is very important. Thank you for your patience. Alternatively, please choose the web reporting function.

The Speak Up Channel can be used to report possible compliance violations including but not limited to:

• Breach of Bayer´s policies
• Human rights or environmental risks or violations (also within the global supply chain)
• Conflicts of interest
• Corruption
• Fraud
• Theft
• Inappropriate gifts and entertainment
• Breaches of confidentiality
• Bribery and kickbacks
• Inappropriate client billings
• Inappropriate reporting of expenses
• Data Privacy Violations
• Harassment
• Discrimination
• Retaliation
• Falsification of official documents

With the Speak Up Channel, Bayer fulfills the requirements of the Supply Chain Due Diligence Act and provides an accessible procedure to report human rights and environmental risks as well as corresponding violations under the protection of confidentiality and protection against reprisals.

You may, for example, make a report if at Bayer or any of its (in-)direct suppliers, a violation of any of the following prohibitions is imminent (or a violation has already occurred):

• Prohibition of child labor
• Prohibition of forced labor and all forms of slavery
• Disregard of occupational health and safety and work-related health hazards
• Disregard of freedom of association, freedom of organization and the right to collective bargaining
• Prohibition of unequal treatment in employment
• Prohibition of the withholding of a fair wage
• Destruction of natural resources through environmental pollution
• Illegal violation of land rights
• Prohibition of hiring or using private/public security forces that may cause harm due to lack of instruction or control
• Prohibition of an act or omission in breach of duty which is directly capable of impairing in a particularly serious manner a protected legal position (arising from human rights conventions within the meaning of § 2 para. 1 LkSG) and whose unlawfulness is obvious in a reasonable assessment of all circumstances under consideration
• Prohibited production, use and/or disposal of mercury (Minamata Convention)
• Prohibited production and/or use of substances within the scope of the Stockholm Convention (POPs), as well as non-environmentally sound handling of waste containing POPs
• Prohibited import/export of hazardous waste as defined by the Basel Convention

No, employees and third parties who make reports in good faith are protected against any form of reprisal and are always treated fairly and with respect. At Bayer, we want to foster an environment where our employees feel comfortable speaking up and living our values. Similarly, we require our suppliers throughout the supply chain to also protect their employees from any form of reprisal in the event of a good faith report.

We encourage you to identify yourself to facilitate an investigation, especially when additional follow-up is useful or necessary.

In all instances, every effort will be made to ensure that information relating to a reported incident is kept confidential and communicated on a need-to-know basis only.

Below you can find three different levels of anonymity that you can choose from:

1. Remain completely anonymous
   You will not reveal your name or contact information to Bayer or to Convercent. Your identity is completely protected on the incident report.
2. Remain anonymous toward organization
   You are comfortable revealing your name and contact information to Convercent, but not to Bayer. Convercent may contact you confidentially to gather additional information about the report yet will not reveal your identity at any time to your organization.
3. Share my name and information
   You choose to reveal your name and identity to both Bayer and to Convercent.

Once your report has been submitted, it will be immediately forwarded to the appropriate individuals within Bayer for review. Bayer handles all incident reports according to its internal investigatory procedures.

If you have provided your contact details, the investigation team will contact you within 7 days. You will be informed about the progress and completion of the investigation. A status update will be provided at appropriate intervals and in any case after 90 days at the latest. In the course of the investigation, we check, among other things, the plausibility of the complaint content, clarify the facts further if necessary, implement preventive or remedial measures if necessary, and review their effectiveness.

You will also be provided a confidential issue access number and asked to provide a personal password and security question. The access number and password allow you to check the status of the report on the Convercent website (visit www.convercent.com/report to be directed to the website), as well as send and receive anonymous messages pertaining to your report at any time.

You can contact the Bayer Compliance Department directly via Speak.Up@Bayer.com. Please be aware that when sending an E-Mail via your Bayer Account, you will reveal your identity to the Compliance Department.

Alternatively, you may contact any of the following:

• Your manager/supervisor, department head.
• Corporate Auditing
• Human Resources

Again, every effort will be made to ensure that information relating to a reported incident is kept confidential and communicated on a need-to-know basis only.

You will be asked general questions, such as

• To describe what happened exactly – a summary of the incident.
• Who was involved?
• The location where the incident occurred (address, location name or other relevant location information).
• The date and time the incident occurred.
• Any supporting documents or evidence you can provide.
• Your relationship to Bayer – e.g. “current employee or former employee”
• If you would like to provide your contact data and whether you would like to share your contact data with Bayer or not.

It is important to be as specific as possible, especially if you chose to not provide personal identifiable information so that your concern can be addressed properly.

At the end of the call, Convercent´s operator will provide you with a unique case identifier or access number. The access number is necessary for further references.

The time it takes to submit a telephone report depends on the nature of the case. It could take between 15 and 30 minutes. If a third-party translator is required, the call could also be longer than 30 minutes. The Web Reporting solution is usually quicker to submit a compliance violation.

Yes. If you have new information or you remember something important about a previously reported incident, you are encouraged to contact Convercent again. Convercent will ask you to provide your access number and will submit an update to your initial report following the same process described above.

If you misplace or do not have your access number, Convercent has no way to reference your initial report. In that case, you will be asked to submit a new report and reference the nature and date of your previous report so that we can identify the related case.

You'll be able to create a personal password, which you can use to check updates of the report after it's been submitted. You won't be able to change your report, but you will be able to add additional details using message boards.

You can communicate with Bayer using the access number and the password you created when you submitted your report. You are encouraged to check back regularly to view messages to your report.