Corporate Governance - Sustainability
Our corporate governance structure is disclosed in our Annual Reports and Proxy Statements. Specifically pertaining to corporate responsibility, The Board is responsible for the oversight and monitoring of management’s assessment of major risks and strategy for risk management, including performing periodic review of the Company’s environmental and safety programs and practices, Corporate Governance Guidelines, and Legal and Ethical Conduct Policy. The Board is regularly briefed on such matters and visits Company operations at least annually.
L.B. Foster's Legal and Ethical Conduct Policy is posted on the Corporate Governance and sets forth the guiding principles by which we operate our company and conduct our daily business with our shareholders, customers, vendors, and each other. Compliance with the Legal and Ethical Conduct Policy is overseen by the Office of the General Counsel and Corporate Secretary.
Annually, we require employees to review and refamiliarize themselves with the Policy, and we encourage them to share it with our customers and business partners so they can sense the commitment we have to doing the right thing in every circumstance. Employees and directors certify compliance with the Policy on an annual basis.
The Company provides ongoing employee training on ethics and compliance, including regularly online through a third-party provider and in person as needed for new hires, functional groups, and at various sales and other organizational meetings. Training is focused on key ethical dilemmas, including anti-bribery, conflicts of interest, insider trading, the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, and the U.K. Bribery Act. Customized training is also provided for various functional groups such as finance and sales, which addresses SEC and other regulatory compliance and contract formation, and HR-related matters such as harassment and hiring practices.
In 2021, the Company trained more than 565 global employees in two online sessions in addition to customized live format by the legal department.
L.B. Foster Company offers our employees an outsourced reporting service for anonymous and confidential use in reporting complaints or concerns about our business practices. We have established the L.B. Foster Ethics and Compliance Line (available at 855-219-7327) and an internet reporting system (EthicsPoint) accessible through the Legal & Ethical Conduct Policy website. These resources provide a completely anonymous way to report any concern about unethical, illegal, or questionable business activity without. The hotline is available to employees around the world 24/7 to confidentially report any concerns or complaints, and it is illegal for the Company to retaliate. It is also available to the company’s suppliers and customers.
In the 10 years since its adoption, the Company Ethics Hotline has received 64 calls and reports from employees. While more than 85 percent of these calls are related to human resources and employee relations issues rather than ethics, management investigates and responds to every call. Regarding employee relations matters, our HR professionals typically follow up with local managers to address reported issues which may be resolved through additional training, discipline, or termination of employment. In situations where complaints involve ethics concerns, legal, financial, accounting, and high-level operational or executive personnel undertake fact-finding and remedial actions where appropriate.
We believe in responsible and ethical business development and consider respect for human rights to be an integral component of responsible business behavior for our employees, customers, and the communities in which we operate. Our Company’s employment practices are designed to comply with all applicable labor regulations where we operate. Our policy on human dignity and rights contains prohibitions of forced labor, human trafficking, and child labor and can be viewed on our Human Rights website. Other aspects of our policy include Diversity & Inclusion, Harassment in the Workplace, Freedom of Association, Health & Safety, Work Hours, Wages & Benefits, and Employee Conduct.
Additionally, we have supplemental policies where we operate or certain we serve having criteria, such as:
- Modern Slavery Policy (Europe) Modern Slavery Policy - L.B. Foster (lbfoster.eu)
- California Transparency in Supply Chain Disclosure
L.B. Foster Company is committed to the highest standards of ethics and business conduct. Accordingly, we fully support the goals and objectives of Section 1502 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act which aims to prevent the use of certain "Conflict Minerals" that directly or indirectly finance, or benefit armed groups in The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and adjoining countries (as defined in the Act). Via the Responsible Minerals Initiative, we complete the Conflict Minerals Reporting Template (CMRT) and submit on an annual basis to the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) under Form SD: Specialized Disclosure Report.
Cybersecurity At LB Foster, we view our cybersecurity strategy as an evolving tool to protect our company and defend our business from harm. We also know that our cybersecurity strategy is vital in ensuring our business is sustainable and that our digital platforms can be trusted and depended upon both by ourselves and our customers. We believe that cybersecurity is a shared responsibility throughout all levels of our organization. One of the most important lines in our cybersecurity defense is to have a well-educated workforce, and one of our primary goals is to inform and educate our people and to validate that training through our cybersecurity awareness program. We are proud to be able to demonstrate that our people are consistently performing above industry-peer average when identifying threats such as phishing. In addition to our people, we operate industry leading next generation cyber detection and response technologies that work 24/7 to identify threats – both known and unknown and stop them in their tracks, and to isolate any asset that could harm our wider environment. We have tools that hunt for vulnerabilities in our environment before they can be used to compromise our network. Our cybersecurity program includes a documented incident response plan that outlines our process for responding to cybersecurity incidents as an organization. We also validate our security strategy by engaging third parties to test our environment for any vulnerabilities. We maintain insurance covering certain costs that we may incur in connection with cybersecurity incidents that we may experience. Our Vice President of IT (“VP-IT”) and Director of Security and Enterprise Architecture oversee our cybersecurity program. The full Board receives periodic briefings from the VP-IT on cyber threats and our cybersecurity program to enhance director literacy on cyber issues.
