How we will demonstrate an ethical approach to end this practice
ERA Modern Slavery – Anti-Slavery and Human Trafficking Statement (for web-site)
ERA Group UK Ltd is one of the world’s leading cost management & procurement consultancy practices. As professional supply chain consultants it’s important to us to put on record our commitment to corporate social responsibility. We believe transparency through our supply chain is the best way we can reassure the public that we are doing our best as an ethical corporate citizen.
In that spirit, we have published here our annual statement addressing the abhorrent issues of slavery and human trafficking which have no place in modern business. This statement is made in compliance with section 54 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015, and explains the steps we are currently taking or will take within this year to prevent modern slavery and human trafficking within our business – and that of our clients.
We have taken the following key steps to ensure slavery and human trafficking does not occur within our supply chain, or those of our clients.
Identifying and addressing risks
ERA is a professional services company operating through a network of independent professional procurement specialists. All our employees and our independent specialists are employed under formal contracts that are fully compliant with UK law. We make limited use of external suppliers.
For ERA the risks associated with modern slavery and human trafficking within our own organisation and immediate supply chain are small. The principal risks are all professional i.e. the advice that we give to our clients on their purchasing practices and on their supply chains. These risks will vary from sector to sector and from client to client, so it is essential that we set in place a robust policy aimed at protecting our clients and ourselves from contributing in any way to these heinous crimes.
Where we do make use of external suppliers we will apply the same policy in the interaction with our own suppliers as we are adopting for our clients.
Developing policy
We have developed our ‘Modern Slavery: Policy and Revised Practice for Associates’ to cover our role as professional advisers. From July 2017, all new projects undertaken by ERA UK and its associates will be compliant with the policy.
Our view is that all organisations should be compliant with the provisions of the Modern Slavery Act and provide a policy statement, whether obligated to under the turnover requirement or not.
The principles by which this policy will be implemented are as follows:
Where the client has their own Modern Slavery Statement and policy, we will ensure that these are incorporated into our dealings with suppliers. We will be requesting that the suppliers confirm their Modern Slavery Statement to us, and provide written confirmation that their supply chain is compliant with our Client’s Modern Slavery policy.
Where the client has no Modern Slavery statement we will offer a generic statement and policy for the client to use.
We will follow the principles 1 and 2 above, whether or not the client’s turnover is less than £36m for our own assurance purposes.
Clients will always have the final say as to whether or not they are happy with the supplier’s approach to compliance with the Modern Slavery policy.
If the client does not want the generic Modern Slavery Statement and policy included on their behalf we still will require that the supplier accept the policy as part of the tender requirements.
Where the terms of the purchasing arrangement is covered by a legal agreement (a formal contract), relevant wording concerning compliance with the Modern Slavery Act will be included.
Training
A key part of our slavery and human trafficking strategy is to promote cultural change within both our employees and clients through awareness training. This year we:
- Ran a training and awareness session for all employees and Associates at our July conference
- Provided everyone with their own copy of the Modern Slavery Policy
- Updated all our training and template material to incorporate the new provisions and make them available to new staff
- Established an escalation route for associates to request further support on behalf of their clients.
- Developed a service for clients to assist with the completion of their own modern slavery statements.