Ethics & compliance

At United, we are committed to conducting our business ethically, honestly and lawfully, each and every day.

Governing compliance

Our Ethics and Compliance Office, led by our Chief Compliance Officer, sets the direction of our ethics and compliance program, and helps to reinforce a culture of integrity through a layered strategy of policies, procedures, education and communication.

Code of Ethics and Business Conduct

United’s Code of Ethics and Business Conduct (“Code”) serves as the baseline for our ethics and compliance program. The Code applies to all employees and officers of United and its subsidiaries and the members of the United Board of Directors. It’s a tool to help us make the right decisions and ensure that we conduct our business ethically and lawfully.

Topics in the Code

The Code states our commitment to complying with laws and regulations and conducting our business in a manner consistent with guiding U.S. and international principles on human rights. It provides guidance on various topics, including:

  • Ethical decision making
  • Conflicts of interest
  • Business gifts and entertainment
  • Insider trading
  • Antitrust and other competition laws
  • Interacting with the government
  • Bribery and corruption
  • Political contributions
  • Lobbying
  • Accuracy and retention of records
  • Data protection for customer and employee personal information
  • Confidential information
  • Intellectual property
  • Building a great place to work including:
    • Preventing harassment and discrimination
    • Fostering appropriate workplace behavior

Anti-Bribery/Anti-Corruption Compliance Policy

We reinforce our commitment to integrity through our Anti-Bribery/Anti-Corruption Compliance Policy (ABAC Policy). The ABAC Policy applies to all employees and officers of United and its subsidiaries as well as third-party representatives and provides specific guidance for individuals who interact with government officials. We understand that even the appearance of impropriety can jeopardize the Company’s interests and is inconsistent with our business principles. Accordingly, nearly all transactions with government officials require approval by the Ethics and Compliance Office.

Raising concerns and whistle-blowing

We regularly highlight the multiple avenues for employees to raise concerns or seek guidance—from managers to Human Resources to the Ethics and Compliance Office, including the Ethics and Compliance Helpline and the Web Reporting tool, which are confidential, available 24/7 and offer multi-language capabilities, providing the ability to report anonymously where possible.

Protection for whistle-blowers

The Code makes clear that United prohibits retaliation against anyone who, in good faith, files a report about suspected illegal or unethical behavior or participates in an investigation. Confidence in reporting non-anonymously has increased year-over-year.

Taking action

The Ethics and Compliance Office reviews all reports to the Helpline and Web Reporting tool, and dedicated staff are tasked with ensuring appropriate investigations of improper conduct. We also have established corrective action procedures for review by a multi-disciplinary team of leaders of substantiated improper conduct.

Training

The Ethics and Compliance Office provides live, in-person training, as well as an online training curriculum for all employees covering the Code, ABAC Policy and other policies and topics, such as anti-harassment and discrimination, diversity, equity and inclusion, cybersecurity and workplace violence.

Timely completion of assigned training is required. In addition, certain workgroups receive live training that is customized to address relevant scenarios and issues. We continue to strengthen our culture of integrity by issuing company-wide and workgroup-specific communications and questionnaires, in addition to increasing employee engagement through quizzes and recognition programs.

Our management and administrative employees receive annual corporate compliance training, including on Code of Conduct, Anti-Bribery and Anti-Corruption. Frontline employees receive corporate compliance training every other year.

United is committed to working with business partners, vendors, suppliers and third parties, who share our commitment to integrity. We expect our partners and suppliers to hold themselves to the highest standards, make ethical decisions in every aspect of their work with United and abide by all laws and regulations that apply to them around the world.