Equiano Group has a zero-tolerance approach to modern slavery and human trafficking within our business. We strive to drive the message home, across our staff, partners and suppliers, while driving business innovation. We are also members of the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC), and we plan to work closely with REC to improve industry-wide standards that fit with our company’s purpose of going “Beyond Boundaries”.

We want to positively influence change, and through our core business of providing access to livelihoods and opportunity we create social and economic value for our stakeholders. We are working on policies and training modules that cement standards into our daily business through relevant HR policies, codes of conduct, and our data protection policy. We aim to collaborate with stakeholders on human rights related questions, given our shared responsibilities in this area, and we are also vocal advocates for equality for all workers.

Equiano Group are always lobbying employers and organisations to address skills shortages and employability challenges.  We promote workforce vitality, by helping to find solutions to nurture a workforce that is healthy, resilient, and fit for purpose. Our ambition is to be a sustainable business that creates value for all stakeholders; continue to challenge ourselves to ensure fair working conditions and to respect human rights within our sphere of influence.

Our commitment to fair and ethical recruitment practices, to the rights of our employees, to our associates and to our candidates and to the wider business community, is clear and paramount.

We want our supply chain to take responsibility and we expect our suppliers to agree and adhere to ethical standards for doing business. These standards require (without limitation) suppliers to: 

-provide, as a minimum, rates of pay at the national legal standards; and 

-act in accordance with applicable national and regional laws and regulations.

-refrain from holding a person in servitude or requiring a person to perform any form of forced or compulsory labour; 

-not arrange or facilitate the trafficking of any persons; nor purchase materials or services from organisations who use involuntary labour or participate in human trafficking; 

-treat and reward employees equally on the basis of the characteristics of their work and the intensity of their effort; 

-provide, while taking into account the specific dangers of the relevant sector, for safe, hygienic, and healthy working environments for their employees; 

As part of our commitment to continuous improvement, we are revising our supplier questionnaire(s) and our standard supplier agreement(s) to ensure our supply chain shares our values and makes reciprocal commitments to manage any risk of modern slavery, ensuring appropriate training of their own staff.

The risk of slavery and human trafficking within our organisation is mitigated by asking the right questions and we therefore ask suppliers to complete questionnaire(s) and provide information which allows us to determine the level of risk that we may be exposed to.

Equiano Group remain committed to reviewing the effectiveness of our intentions by providing awareness training to consultants & associates and all other support team members. We continue to evaluate how we can work more closely with our clients and partners to ensure respect for human rights.

This statement was approved by the Managing Director on 9th November 2020