Modern Slavery Statement
INTRODUCTION
This statement is made pursuant to s54 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 and sets out the steps that DDC Engineering Solutions Ltd has taken, and is continuing to take, to make sure that modern slavery or human trafficking is not taking place within our business or supply chain during the year ending 31 March 2019.
Modern slavery encompasses slavery, servitude, human trafficking and forced labour. DDC Engineering Solution Ltd has a zero tolerance approach to any form of modern slavery. We are committed to acting ethically and with integrity and transparency in all business dealings and to putting effective systems and controls in place to safeguard against any form of modern slavery taking place within the business or our supply chain.
OUR POLICIES ON SLAVERY AND HUMAN TRAFFICKING
DDC Engineering Solutions Ltd is aware of our responsibilities towards employees, subcontractors, clients and expects all suppliers to adhere to the same ethical principles. We are committed to ensuring that there is no modern slavery or human trafficking in our supply chains or in any part of our business. Our internal policies replicate our commitment to acting ethically and with integrity in all our business relationships.
Currently, all awarded suppliers are expected that they conduct their businesses in a manner that is consistent with the Modern slavery act 2015.
We operate a number of internal policies to ensure that we are conducting business in an ethical and transparent manner. These include:
- Recruitment policy. We operate a robust recruitment policy, including conducting eligibility to work in the UK checks for all directly employed and agency staff.
- Equal Opportunities. We have a range of controls to protect staff from poor treatment and/or exploitation, which comply with all respective laws and regulations. These include provision of fair pay rates, fair terms and conditions of employment, and access to training and development opportunities
- Whistleblowing policy. We operate a whistleblowing policy so that all employees know that they can raise concerns about how colleagues or people in our supply chain are being treated, or about practices within our business or supply chain, without fear of reprisals.
- Standards of business conduct. This code explains the manner in which we behave as an organisation and how we expect our employees and suppliers to act.
Our approach to procurement and our supply chain includes:
- Ensuring that our suppliers are carefully selected through our robust supplier selection criteria/processes
- Requiring that the main contractor provides details of its sub-contractor(s) to enable DDC to check their credentials
- Ensuring invitation to tender documents contain a clause on human rights issues
- Ensuring invitation to tender documents also contains clauses giving DDC the right to terminate a contract for failure to comply with labour laws
We expect supplier adherence to our values. We are zero tolerant to slavery and human trafficking and thereby expect all our direct and indirect suppliers/contractors to follow suit.
Where it is verified that a subcontractor has breached the child labour laws or human trafficking, then this subcontractor will be excluded in accordance to our T&C’s. DDC will require that the main contractor substitute a new subcontractor.
TRAINING
Advice and training about modern slavery and human trafficking is available to staff through our mandatory training programmes, our policies and procedures, and our leads.
We are looking at ways to continuously increase awareness within our organisation, and to ensure a high level of understanding of the risks involved with modern slavery and human trafficking in our supply chains and in our business.
OUR PERFORMANCE INDICATORS
We will know the effectiveness of the steps that we are taking to ensure that slavery and/or human trafficking is not taking place within our business or supply chain if:
- No reports are received from our staff, the public, or law enforcement agencies to indicate that modern slavery practices have been identified.