L. S. Starrett Company - Business Conduct and Ethics

Business Conduct and Ethics

In 2002 a former Starrett subcontractor alerted US Defense Department investigators to an alleged fraud issue with a measuring device called Rapid Check, which Starrett had to replace free-of-charge to customers because of a fault. Federal agents raided Starrett's North Carolina plant looking for evidence of fraud and Starrett's share price plummeted as a result while the company sought to prevent documents related to the allegations from being released publicly. The federal investigation yielded nothing damaging, and it was terminated in December 2003 with no charges filed. Prior to this, though, on September 17 2003, Starrett had issued an official statement on business conduct and ethics. After a preamble from Douglas A Starrett in which he reiterates the company’s founding principles of ‘humanity, integrity and honesty’, the document goes on to set out areas in which employees should be mindful of business conduct and ethics in various social, commercial and political situations. Among these are protection and proper use of company assets and conflicts of interest. All company assets, the policy states, should be used for legitimate business purposes and care should be taken when using company e-mail, internet and voice mail systems. Referring to conflicts of interest, the document says that these occur when an employee's private interests or those of an immediate family or household member or someone with whom an employee has an intimate relationship interfere in any way – or even appear to interfere – with an employee's duties as an employee or with the interests of the company as a whole.