Modern Slavery Statement 2018
What is the Modern Slavery Act 2015?
The Modern Slavery Act 2015 seeks to address the role of businesses in preventing modern slavery occurring in their supply chains and organisations. In particular, Section 54 applies to businesses with a turnover of more than £36 million pa, who are required to publish an annual statement setting out the steps they have taken to ensure that modern slavery and human trafficking are not taking place their business or supply chain.
As a smaller private limited company that does not meet this threshold, CSE Industrial Electrical Distributors Ltd are not required to publish an annual statement; nevertheless, we are committed to acting ethically and with integrity in all our business relationships, and to implementing and enforcing effective systems and controls to ensure slavery and human trafficking is not taking place anywhere in our business or in our supply chains, and would like to demonstrate this commitment as below:
Our statement
Modern slavery encompasses slavery, servitude, human trafficking and forced labour. CSE 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
We operate a number of internal policies to ensure that we are conducting business in an ethical and transparent manner. These include:
- Anti-slavery policy. This policy sets out the organisation’s stance on modern slavery and explains how employees can identify any instances of this and where they can go for help.
- Recruitment policy. We operate a robust recruitment policy, including conducting eligibility to work in the UK checks for all employees to safeguard against human trafficking or individuals being forced to work against their will.
- Whistleblowing policy. We operate a whistleblowing policy so that all employees know that they can raise concerns about how colleagues are being treated, or practices within our business or supply chain, without fear of reprisals.
- Code 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 suppliers
CSE operates a supplier policy and maintains a preferred supplier list. We conduct due diligence on all suppliers before allowing them to become a preferred supplier. This due diligence includes an online search to ensure that particular organisation has never been convicted of offenses relating to modern slavery. Our anti-slavery policy forms part of our contract with all suppliers and they are required to confirm that no part of their business operations contradicts this policy.
In addition to the above, as part of our contract with suppliers, we require that they confirm to us that:
- They have taken steps to eradicate modern slavery within their business
- They hold their own suppliers to account over modern slavery
- (For UK based suppliers) They pay their employees at least the national minimum wage / national living wage (as appropriate)
- (For international suppliers) They pay their employees any prevailing minimum wage applicable within their country of operations
- We may terminate the contract at any time should any instances of modern slavery come to light]
Training
We regularly conduct training for our procurement / buying teams so that they understand the signs of modern slavery and what to do if they suspect that it is taking place within our supply chain.
Our review of supplier relationships and internal policies is ongoing.
