Modern slavery is a term used to encompass slavery, servitude, forced and compulsory labour, bonded and child labour and human trafficking. Human trafficking is where a person arranges or facilitates the travel of another person with a view to that person being exploited. Modern slavery is a crime and a violation of fundamental human rights.

The Co-operative strictly prohibits the use of modern slavery and human trafficking in our operations and supply chain. We have and will continue to be committed to ensuring that modern slavery is not taking place anywhere within our organisation or in any of our supply chains. We expect that our suppliers will hold their own suppliers to the same high standards.

Commitments

• We shall be a company that expects everyone working with us or on our behalf to support and uphold the following measures to safeguard against modern slavery;
• We have a zero-tolerance approach to modern slavery in our co-operative and our supply chains;
• The prevention, detection and reporting of modern slavery in any part of our organisation or supply chain is the responsibility of all those working for us or on our behalf. Workers must not engage in, facilitate or fail to report any activity that might lead to, or suggest, a breach of this policy;
• We are committed to engaging with our clients and suppliers to address the risk of modern slavery in our operations and supply chain;
• We take a risk-based approach to our contracting processes and keep them under review. We assess whether the circumstances warrant the inclusion of specific prohibitions against the use of modern slavery and trafficked labour in our contracts with third parties. Using our risked based approach, we will also assess the merits of writing to suppliers requiring them to comply with our Code of Conduct, which sets out the minimum standards required to combat modern slavery and trafficking;
• Consistent with our risk-based approach we may require:
  • Employment and recruitment agencies and other third parties supplying workers to our organisation to confirm their compliance with our Code of Conduct;
  • Suppliers engaging workers through a third party to obtain that third parties' agreement to adhere to the Code;
• As part of our ongoing risk assessment and due diligence processes we will consider whether circumstances warrant us carrying out audits of suppliers for their compliance with our Code of Conduct;
• If we find that other individuals or organisations working on our behalf have breached this policy, we will ensure that we take appropriate action. This may range from considering the possibility of breaches being remediated and whether that might represent the best outcome for those individuals impacted by the breach to terminating such relationships.

Policy Compliance

If you fail to comply with the above rules this will be viewed seriously and will be dealt with in accordance with the Co-operative's disciplinary procedure.

Equality

It is considered that the Co-operative's recruitment processes meet the requirements under Equality legislation and are delivered in a fair and equal approach.

Review

The Co-operative's policies and procedures aim to ensure that employees are aware of, and confident that, the Co-operative is complying with current legislation and is protecting the interests of both the needs of the business and its employees. In this respect, it may be appropriate to modify existing policies and/or procedures from time to time to reflect changes as appropriate, and this policy will be reviewed as necessary by the Co-operative.