Modern Slavery Statement (2022)
Délifrance (UK) Ltd strives to be a socially responsible corporate citizen. Through its managers and through its people, we are committed to:
- promoting protection of the environment
- supporting charities and local communities
- promoting equal opportunities
- ensuring safe and efficient working practices
- working with suppliers and customers who uphold similar values.
To achieve our goal we will continue to take steps to confirm that there is no modern slavery or human trafficking taking place within any element of our business. This will include, but is not limited to, forced labour by such means as: physical/sexual violence; intimidation or threatening behaviour; withholding or diverting of wages; abusive working conditions; excessive or compulsory working hours or overtime; abuse of, or otherwise taking advantage of, vulnerable workers.
Throughout the period July 2022 to June 2023 we will undertake the following activities:
People
- Continued compliance with our strict employment policies covering recruitment / bribery & corruption / health & safety / harassment and bullying.
- All personnel employed directly by Delifrance (UK) Ltd are paid at an appropriate rate in line with the National Living Wage and overtime payments are in line with the ETI base code.
- Working hours continue to be monitored to ensure they are not excessive and personnel are given rest days in accordance with the ETI base code. Incidents of excessive working are reviewed when identified.
- Temporary employees will continue to be sourced from a GLA-approved agency and regular audits of the agency will continue to be undertaken to ensure that these employees are being paid at rates in line with the National Living Wage and have no unfair or unnecessary deductions.
- We continue to be members of SEDEX and undertake regular third party audits of ourselves, at appropriate frequencies, to ensure that we are complying with best ethical practices.
- We will empower the voice of our workers through annual Engagement Surveys and Action Planning, Involvement Forums with Worker Representatives and Trade Union representatives, Town Hall Meetings for all colleagues and our Delifrance Newsletter. We will raise awareness of Modern Slavery through these media. We will include agency workers in our next Engagement Survey.
- We recognise the higher level of vulnerability of agency workers and are reducing our dependence on agency labour across both sites by increasing the number of permanent Production-based employees. Where possible, we are doing so by offering permanent contracts to agency workers.
- As part of Vivescia Group, we have a strong Values framework that we will work to embed in all levels of the organisation which weill drive positive behaviours in Delifrance (UK) Ltd.
- We will work with Stronger Together to develop a KPI framework for the measurement of our progress on Modern Slavery and use this to build our Action Plan for 2023-4.
Training
- All new personnel are briefed about modern slavery and human trafficking during their induction to the business and there are various routes for confidential whistleblowing. This requirement is incorporated into periodic refresher training for all employees every 3 years.
- The Whistleblowing number will be re-communication via Delifrance News, Town Hall Briefs and Involvement Forum meetings as well as via noticeboards and the Vivescia website.
- All internal managers and supervisors have been trained in the signs of modern slavery / human trafficking and we have continued to develop our internal training plans to ensure awareness of modern slavery to all employees, enabling everyone to identify potential signs and react accordingly. The training is refreshed every 3 years.
- We will review our training approach and materials in line with the advice and materials available from Stronger Together.
Suppliers
- We are continuing to engage with all suppliers to ensure that our total supply chain is actively targeting the identification and elimination of modern slavery and human trafficking.
- In the past year we have carried out a review of all UK suppliers to ensure their compliance with Modern Slavery regulations through SEDEX. This is in progress for our non-UK suppliers. We are continuing to explore the SEDEX and ECOVADIS systems to identify ways that they can give us a deeper insight into any potential modern slavery / human trafficking risk within our supply chain and enable us to take appropriate steps to eliminate occurence or risk of occurrence as necessary.
- Where suppliers flag as potentially at risk from a modern slavery perspective, we work with them either directly or via a thrid party auditor to improve this area. If they were unable to do this, we would look to source an alternative supplier.
Niall Cogan
General Manager – Délifrance (UK) Ltd.
July 2022