Acosta RH Limited Slavery And Human Trafficking Statement For The Financial Year 2021

 

Introduction

We are committed to improving our practices to combat slavery and human trafficking. We will ensure that the organisations we do business with are aware of our Modern Slavery Policy and are provided with this statement.

 

Organisation’s Structure

We are a provider of retail marketing services predominantly in the United Kingdom, Ireland and Europe. We form a group of companies with c 800 employees. We are a wholly-owned subsidiary of Acosta Inc.

 

Our Supply Chains

Our supply chains include: consultants, conference and venue hires, marketing & PR, recruitment; IT and software services; HR systems, provision of car fleets as well as merchandise and uniform suppliers.

 

Our Policies on Slavery and Human Trafficking

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 Anti-slavery Policy reflects our commitment 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 supply chains.

 

Additionally we operate the following policies to describe our approach to the identification of modern slavery risks and steps to prevent slavery and human trafficking in its operations:

 

• Whistleblowing policy – We encourage all our workers, customers and other business partners to report any concerns related to the direct activities, or the supply chains of, the organisation. This includes any circumstances that may give rise to an enhanced risk of slavery or human trafficking. Our whistleblowing procedure is designed to make it easy for workers to make disclosures, without fear of retaliation. Employees, customers or others who have concerns can use our confidential ethics hotline.

 

• Code of conduct The organisation’s code makes clear to employees the actions and behaviour expected of them when representing the organisation. The organisation strives to maintain the highest standards of employee conduct and ethical behaviour when operating abroad and managing its supply chain.

 

• Recruitment and selection policy The organisation uses only specified, reputable employment agencies to source labour and always verifies the practices of any new agency it is using before accepting workers from that agency.

 

Due Diligence Processes for Slavery and Human Trafficking

As part of our initiative to identify and mitigate risk we carry out due diligence on our suppliers to ensure they provide a declaration that they comply with slavery and human trafficking legislation and we provide them with our Modern Slavery Policy.

 

We will:
· Identify and assess potential risk areas in our supply chains.
· Mitigate the risk of slavery and human trafficking occurring in our supply chains.
· Monitor potential risk areas in our supply chains.
· Protect whistle blowers.

Supplier Adherence to our Values

We’re committed to ensuring that our suppliers adhere to the highest standards of ethics. We have a zero tolerance to slavery and human trafficking. Suppliers are required to demonstrate that they provide safe working conditions where necessary, treat workers with dignity and respect, and act ethically and within the law in their use of labour. The organisation works with suppliers to ensure that they meet the standards of the code and improve their worker’s working conditions. However, serious violations of this will lead to the termination of the business relationship.

 

We have a compliance team, which consists of involvement from the following departments:
· Audit, finance and compliance.
· Human Resources.
· Sales.

 

Awareness

To ensure a high level of understanding of the risks of modern slavery and human trafficking in our supply chains and our business, we ensure our staff are aware of the obligations of the Act.

 

This statement is made pursuant to section 54(1) of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 and constitutes our Group’s slavery and human trafficking statement for the financial year ending 31st December 2021.