Modern Slavery Victim Working in Mines

The 2015 UK Modern Slavery Act Hits Big Brands

It has now been just over a year since the 2015 UK Modern Slavery Act came into effect. Large companies have been investigated, with some business owners seeing the inside of a prison cell. The following examples show the importance of ensuring your company is not associated with modern slavery.

The Not-So-Free Range Eggs

In June 2016 Jaqueline Judge and Darrell Houghton were found guilty of exploiting 6 Lithuanian men and of breaching the Modern Slavery Act. The six men had been trafficked to the UK and required to catch chickens from farms around the country. They were usually not given time to eat proper meals and deprived of appropriate facilities to wash and rest, being required to urinate in bottles and defecate in plastic bags while traveling between jobs. Wages were often withheld, as well as having a salary well under the agricultural minimum wage.

These workers were also intimated by fighting dogs if they ever complained. They were abused by “supervisors” who were employed by the couple to watch over them. One of the workers said “[Our Lithuanian supervisor] Edikas sometimes punished one person and sometimes punished the whole house for one person’s mistake.”

Being a Free Range Eggs provider, the irony of this case is striking. Further, this company distributed eggs to large chains including McDonald’s, Tesco and Asda. For them to be found guilty Modern Slavery charges is a reminder of the importance of verifying a company’s supply chain. Knowing potential red flags to look out for and having an effective reporting procedure in place is now more vital than ever.
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A Young Girl Sews Fabric for a Clothes Retailer
Does your organisation know exactly what is happening in its supply chain?

Produce a Slavery and Human Tracking Statement with Our Template

Under the 2015 UK Modern Slavery Act, all businesses with over £36m in annual turnover conducting business in the UK are required to publish a slavery and human trafficking statement. The statement should detail the steps that your organisation is undertaking to ensure that your global supply chain is slavery free. Continue reading

31 July 2016 marked one year since the Modern Slavery Act came into force. The leading voice behind the act, Prime Minister Theresa May, recognised the occasion with an article in the Sunday Telegraph providing more detail on how her government will lead the way in dismantling modern slavery.

The Prime Minister reports that important progress has been made in the first year with 289 modern slavery offences prosecuted in 2015 alone and a 40% rise in the number of victims identified by the State.

Training and raising awareness within companies

The Prime Minister stressed that raising awareness is a key component of the act. It is also an area that created early confusion. Many companies were not sure of their obligation to raise awareness through employee training. Continue reading

VinciWorks has released a new online course on the Modern Slavery Act. This 20 minute course teaches employees about the Modern Slavery Act and explains how they can identify signs of slavery in the supply chain. It uses scenarios that are tailored to different industries and can be customised to include internal procedures. The course:

 

  • Provides background on the scope of the issue
  • Reviews the legal requirements under the Modern Slavery Act
  • Teaches staff how to identify slavery in the supply chain
  • Provide examples of red flags
  • Explains the organisation’s internal reporting procedures

 

Fill out the form below to demo the course:

Time is ticking on the Modern Slavery Act. Organisations with a financial year ending 31 March 2016 have a looming compliance deadline in September.

Under the Act, organisations with over £36m in revenue must publish a slavery and human trafficking statement within six months of their financial year. This statement should detail the steps taken to identify and eradicate slavery from the supply chain, including:

  • Slavery and human trafficking policies
  • Due diligence procedures
  • Risk assessments and KPIs
  • Staff training

Forming a proper statement takes months of preparation. Policies need to be drafted, staff must be trained. Now is the time for all companies affected by the Act to start laying the groundwork for compliance.

VinciWorks has released a complimentary guide to compliance with with the Modern Slavery Act. Written by experts on the new law, the guide details the steps you must take to prepare a slavery and human trafficking statement. It includes sample statements, practical examples and checklists.

Download the guide

VinciWorks attended a recent event hosted by Thomson Reuters titled Modern Slavery, Bribery and Corruption. The international panel included Nick Grono, CEO of the Freedom Fund, Dan Viederman, CEO of Verité, Duncan Jepson, CEO of Liberty Asia, Martina Vandenberg, Founder and President of the Human Trafficking Pro Bono Legal Center and Mike Harris from World-Check.

The panel – which coincided with the publishing of two new reports: Modern Slavery and Corruption and An Exploratory Study on the Role of Corruption in International Labour Migration – focused on the relationship between modern slavery and corruption. The discussion provided an overview of the current legislation around the world, including the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which has been used effectively in the United States to prosecute human traffickers.

The key takeaway from the discussion was that slavery can only take place when corruption is present. At some stage in the process, someone must turn a blind eye, pay a bribe or falsify records to facilitate human trafficking or forced labour. Organisations should never be able to say “we were not aware” because the warning signs and the records of corruption are almost always there to be found. Continue reading