Anti Slavery Day 2022
Today (18th October) is Anti-Slavery Day and while many of us would assume that, in 2022, slavery isn’t a problem we would have to contend with as a society, the reality is very different.
The sad fact is every year, more and more incidents of Modern Slavery are being identified across various industries. In the second quarter of 2022, over 4 thousand potential victims were referred to the Home Office, an increase of 34% year-on-year.
Due to the fragmented supply chain and prominent use of sub-contracted labour, the construction sector is particularly at risk. According to UK anti-slavery charity Unseen, construction accounted for more than 20% of the incidents of labour exploitation that were reported to its helpline in 2021.
It is incumbent on all of us in the industry to remain vigilant to ensure that we are able to spot the signs of Modern Slavery and know how to raise concerns.
At ESS Modular we have implemented a number of policies and processes across our business to make all of our teams aware of the issue and able to help us ensure modern slavery does not take place on any of our projects or workplaces.
This includes:
- All of our subcontractors must provide us with a record of their own Modern Slavery Policies and processes as part of the Pre-Qualification process, to ensure we know that the suppliers working with us are alive to the risks
- We have reduced the number of labour agencies we work with and carry out audits to ensure that their processes are reducing the risk of labour exploitation occurring
- We audit our sites and factories to spot signs of slavery in the workforce
- We have created a response plan in our internal Anti-Slavery Policy for dealing with any suspected risks of slavery
- All of our teams undergo mandatory training to make them aware of the risks of modern slavery and how to spot the signs and our induction process for site workers includes informing them of what they must do if they suspect someone is a victim
Read more about our approach to tackling the risk of Modern Slavery here:
https://www.essmodular.com/about/modern-slavery/