Modern slavery is a crime and a violation of fundamental human rights. It takes various forms, such as slavery, servitude, forced and compulsory labour and human trafficking, all of which have in common the deprivation of a person’s liberty by another in order to exploit them for personal or commercial gain.
Our Policy on Slavery and Human Trafficking
As an inclusive employment business and employment agency that specializes in the recruitment, staffing and training of professionals from various industries such as Healthcare, Information Technology and Manufacturing, Acumen Staffing Management Ltd has a zero-tolerance approach to modern slavery.
We are committed to implementing and enforcing effective systems, policies and guidelines that ensure that no activity that can be linked to or found falling under the scope of modern slavery is taking place anywhere in our own business or in any of our supply chains.
Acumen Staffing Management Ltd is also committed to ensuring there is transparency in our own business and in our approach to tackling modern slavery throughout our supply chains, consistent with our disclosure obligations under the Modern Slavery Act 2015. We are aware that Hidden Labour Exploitation and Unethical Trading behaviours exist and we are committed to acting with integrity, in the protection of the interests of our employees and our brand reputation.
We expect the same high standards from all of our contractors, suppliers and other business partners. We maintain an open, transparent and ethical way of dealing with our stakeholders and employees. As part of this process, we have prohibited the use of forced, compulsory or trafficked labour, or anyone held in slavery or servitude, whether adults or children.
All members of our staff (permanent and temporary) are interviewed in detail and have their documents verified to establish the authenticity of their identity and their right to work in the UK. These documents are inspected, photocopied and where appropriate, further ratified using relevant Government Agencies.
Acumen Staffing Management Ltd identifies itself as suppliers of manpower and talent resources as all workers and prospective employers are directly sourced by us. The suppliers to our business are third party vendors who support our business infrastructure like technology support, vendors for office consumable etc.
Scope/To Whom This Policy Applies
This policy applies to all persons working for Acumen Staffing Management Ltd or on our behalf in any capacity, including employees at all levels, directors, officers, agency workers, seconded workers, volunteers, interns, agents, contractors, external consultants, third-party representatives and business partners.
This policy does not form part of any employee’s contract of employment and Acumen may amend it at any time.
Due Diligence
- All our contracts with clients are drawn up keeping in mind the principles of removing any possibility of Unethical Trading and Tackling Hidden Labour Exploitation.
- During the interview of prospective employees, we have included a specific set of questions aimed to establish whether they are subject to any form of modern slavery.
- All our employees must hold bank accounts in their own name in order to receive wages or salaries every month. We also keep a watch out for duplicate bank accounts or multiple usages of the same residential address.
- All staff responsible for recruiting and sourcing workers are trained and required to sign up to a set of Recruiter Compliance principles that govern their methods of recruiting new staff.
- Any concerns our staff may have in relation to modern slavery are encouraged to be made in the strictest confidence to Acumen Staffing Management Ltd’s Managing Director.
- Periodic internal audits of our group offices and systems are carried out to ensure that our high standards, policies and practices are being met. We are also subject to numerous client and independent audits that include interviews with randomly selected workers that help us to detect any issues in relation to modern slavery.
Training
All Acumen workers, whether employed to work in our group offices or on client sites, are provided with an induction that includes information on sources of help should they, or their colleagues/friends be concerned about modern slavery.
All staff who are responsible for recruiting workers receive additional training in relation to our Recruiter Principles and subscribe to our strict code of practice.
The Senior Compliance Managers at Acumen are in charge of ensuring that all staff ad workers are up to date on their understanding ad training of the issues involved in modern slavery.
Breaches of this Policy
Any employee who breaches this policy will face disciplinary action, which could result in dismissal for misconduct or gross misconduct.
We may terminate our relationship with other individuals and organisations working on our behalf if they breach this policy.
This statement is made pursuant to section 54(1) of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 and constitutes Acumen Staffing Management Ltd’s statement on Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking for the financial year 2021/22.
Reg office: 292 London Road, Croydon.CR0 2TG, United Kingdom | T: +44 (0)2081 576215 | E: info@acumenrecruits.co.uk