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Slavery. Modern Slavery Act 2015 - More from QIC

19 Oct | by admin | General | 0 Comment

There are some organisations within the UK who believe that the Modern Slavery Act 2015 does not apply to them because within their own operations they are not involved in human trafficking and forced labour. However, the Modern Slavery Act 2015 does not just apply to organisations “own” personnel, it also applies to those within the organisations supply chain.

The Modern Slavery Act 2015 aims to “prevent” all forms of labour exploitation and increase transparency of labour practices throughout supply chains. Current figures show that almost 19 million victims are exploited by private individuals or enterprises and approximately 14.2 million are victims of forced labour exploitation in economic activities. It is estimated that forced labour generates some US$150 billion in illegal profits per year. The areas most affected are:

  • Domestic Workers
  • Agricultural Workers
  • Construction Workers
  • Workers within Manufacturing
  • Workers within the Entertainment Industry

Migrant workers and indigenous people are particularly vulnerable to forced labour. According to the International Labour Organisation ILO), almost 36 million people worldwide or 0.5% of the world’s population live in modern slavery. According to NHS, slavery and human trafficking remains high on the agenda for government and businesses a year after the Modern Slavery Act was introduced.

The Modern Slavery Act 2015 applies to any type of  organisation or industry in the UK whose annualised sales turnover is at the level of £36,000,000 and above.

QIC can assist organisations in meeting the requirements of the Modern Slavery Act as we have developed an on-line platform which can be used by organisations who have been captured by the Modern Slavery Act due to the annualised sales turnover in monitoring suppliers through review of reports and the follow-up of any issues raised during audits. For the audits themselves we have developed our own Code of Conduct (CoC) which is based on the fundamentals of Human Rights and synchronises with the on-line platform to ensure that reports and any issues raised during audits are reported in a controlled and efficient manner.

The on-line platform can also be used in conjunction with Organisations own Codes of Conduct as well as the one designed by QIC.

The most important aspect about the QIC on-line platform unlike other schemes is that is it free of charge to use by any organisation that has signed up with QIC for conducting supply chain audits. There are also no “Membership” fees.

The benefits of engaging QIC to assist with compliance to the Modern Slavery Act 2015 are:

  • QIC has over 500 competent auditors within the field of auditing of Social Accountability Management Systems.
  • Application and Web Based Reporting to ensure consistency and efficiency.
  • All globalgroup auditors assigned will have attended and passed a Social Accountability (SAI) accredited 5 Day Basic and 3 Day Advanced Training Course as well as an advanced course on Risk management, structured on ISO 31000.
  • All globalgroup auditors are witnessed in the field initially and on an on-going basis.

For more details about how QIC can assist organisations in meeting the requirements of the Modern Slavery Act please call our Edinburgh office on 0131 535 1071 and ask for Alan Cherry or send an email to us.