- M&J GROUP
modern slavery and human trafficking
ANNUAL STATEMENT
1. Structure, business and supply chain
We believe transparency is the best way we can ensure the public that we are doing our best as an ethical corporate citizen. In that spirit, we have published our annual statement for slavery and human trafficking, made in compliance with section 54 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015, in which we explain how slavery and human trafficking can affect our business and the steps we are taking in the fight against it.
This statement is intended to fulfil the legal requirement for a slavery and human trafficking statement on behalf of all companies within the M&J Group. Our efforts against slavery and human trafficking complement our broader CSR Policy and our adoption of the Ethical Trading Initiative.
M&J Group is headquartered in Bedford, England and sells its products and services primarily in the UK. With over 150no employees and a 2021 Turnover of £41m.
Our products and Services make use of materials across a global supply chain bringing value to our clients. Where possible, we engage suppliers who have relationships with existing suppliers so that we can contain our supplier network and improve consistency in ethical practices throughout the supply chain. For a more detailed breakdown of our supply chain composition, please see the Supply Chain section of our Annual Report. M&J Group operate a Quality Assured Supplier List (QASL) as part of our ISO 9001 Quality Accreditation, ensuring we engage similar minded suppliers that meet our compliance parameters.
Building on our existing CSR Policy and our commitment to the Ethical Trading Initiative, we have embraced the requirement to publish an annual slavery and human trafficking statement. This will allow us to share our efforts against slavery and human trafficking and improve and measure our success each financial year. This past financial year ending 31 March 2022, we took the following key steps to ensure slavery and human trafficking did not occur within our organisation or supply chain.
2. Slavery and human trafficking policies
Notably, we developed our Slavery and Human Trafficking Policy, which can be found within our CSR Policy. We also updated our Supplier Code of Conduct. It sets out clear objectives for 1, 3 and 5 year slavery and human trafficking plans around the following themes:
- Relationships: Strengthening our supplier engagement process
- Feedback: Establishing grievance mechanisms and channels for individual worker feedback
- Knowledge: Improving our knowledge base by collecting relevant data and improving product traceability
- Third party engagement: Building strategic alliances with independent social auditors, unions and NGOs
- Measurable change: Developing verifiable KPIs to measure progress
- Supplier collaboration: Encouraging suppliers to collaborate to address slavery and human trafficking issues
- Incentivisation: Developing mechanisms to incentivise employees and suppliers to address slavery and human trafficking and improve labour standards
- Accountability: Establishing a framework for organisation accountability to allow for raising issues, making suggestions, voicing grievances and reporting slavery and human trafficking.
3. Due diligence procedures
We understand that our biggest exposure to Modern Slavery is in our product supply chains, where we have undertaken activity over the last decade to minimise the risk of Modern Slavery. Within these areas, new suppliers and factories/sites are subject to due diligence checks in the form of ethical/compliance audits. Such audits are also regularly conducted for existing suppliers and factories/sites. These audits assess compliance with the Global Sourcing Principles and are, amongst other things, intended to identify any Modern Slavery practices. If issues are identified, appropriate investigative and remedial actions will be taken.
4. Identifying, assessing and managing risk
We set out to identify the extent of any slavery and human trafficking in our supply chains by:
- Conducting 30 internal spot-checks
- Engaging third party to conduct social audits
- Interviewing 25 workers to discuss their conditions and their rights
- Collaborating with 2 of our suppliers to develop an improvement plan to address new and previously identified slavery and human trafficking issues
5. Key performance indicators
In order to assess the effectiveness of our modern slavery measures we will be reviewing the following key performance indicators:
- Staff training levels
- Number of slavery incidents reported in the supply chain
6. Training available to staff
A key part of our slavery and human trafficking strategy is to promote cultural change through training. This last financial year we:
- Delivered online training modules on modern slavery to all staff
Signed on behalf of The M&J Group (Construction & Roofing) Limited:
Signed
Tim Gibbs
Managing Director
Date: January 2024
