Today is\n\u2018Anti-Slavery Day\u2019 where the aim is to fight against and raise awareness of the\ndangers and consequences of slavery, human trafficking and exploitation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Believe it or not, slavery in the UK and overseas was not eliminated with the Abolition of Slavery Act of 1807<\/strong>. In fact, it\u2019s estimated there are tens of thousands of people in slavery today. They may not be in chains and working under a searing heat any more, but instead they are in what is known as \u2018modern slavery.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n A modern-day\nslave is someone who is forced to do work against their will through coercion\nor mental or physical threats. They are often in what is known as \u2018bonded\nlabour\u2019 or \u2018debt bondage\u2019 where they have no choice but to work to pay off a\ndebt to their employer or agency. These people have often been trafficked from\na different country with the promise of a good job in the UK. Once here the\nsituation is very different. Their passports are confiscated together with any\ncontrol over the conditions of their employment or their debt. In short, they\nare trapped into working and living in poor conditions, with little or no wage\nand with no hope of ever repaying their debt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Several women\nand children are forced into sex work or a life of crime, including growing\ncannabis or theft. They are dehumanised and living in constant fear of threats\nand violence to themselves and their families.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There have been several steps taken to try to stamp out slavery in the UK. The Modern Slavery Act was passed in 2015<\/strong> to make it easier to prosecute traffickers and it increased sentences for slavery offences. It also ensures that victims of slavery will not be prosecuted for crimes they have been forced to commit. There are child trafficking advocates to help protect trafficked children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One of the\nmajor clauses of the Modern Slavery Act, which relates to the food and other industries,\nis that large UK businesses with an annual turnover of over \u00a336 million have to\npublicly report how they tackle slavery in their global supply chains and\npublish a modern slavery statement. Slaves are most commonly trafficked into\nindustries such as agriculture, construction, manufacturing, hospitality and\ninto smaller concerns such as car washes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Companies have a moral responsibility to ensure that the products they sell are slave-free. This means throughout the entire supply chain. This is not easy to do if the supply chain is very long. However, major retailers require their suppliers undergo ethical audits<\/strong><\/a> to make sure that employees are being treated fairly and with respect. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The ethical audit<\/a> is carried out against the 9 sections of the Ethical Trade Initiative (ETI) Base Code. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n 1: Employment is\nfreely chosen<\/p>\n\n\n\n 2: Freedom of association and the right to collective bargaining are respected<\/p>\n\n\n\n 3: Working\nconditions are safe and hygienic<\/p>\n\n\n\n 4: Child labour\nshall not be used<\/p>\n\n\n\n 5: Living wages<\/a>\nare paid<\/p>\n\n\n\n 6: Working hours\nare not excessive<\/p>\n\n\n\n 7: No\ndiscrimination is practiced<\/p>\n\n\n\n 8: Regular\nemployment is provided<\/p>\n\n\n\n 9: No harsh or\ninhumane treatment is allowed<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is designed to help protect\nworkers from poor and unsafe working conditions, overwork, discrimination, low\npay and forced working conditions. It is founded on the conventions of\nthe International Labour Organisation (ILO) and is an internationally\nrecognised code of labour practice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Verner Wheelock has a team of experienced ethical auditors<\/a> operating throughout the UK and Ireland. If you would like to find out more about our ethical audits, please click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Let\u2019s hope that in\nfuture there will be no need for an Anti-Slavery Day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Today is \u2018Anti-Slavery Day\u2019 where the aim is to fight against and raise awareness of the dangers and consequences of slavery, human trafficking and exploitation. Believe it or not, slavery in the UK and overseas was not eliminated with the Abolition of Slavery Act of 1807. In fact, it\u2019s estimated there are tens of thousands […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[56,218,217,1402,1401,464,466],"class_list":["post-6310","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-food-safety-hygiene-news","tag-ethical-audits","tag-ethical-trading","tag-eti-base-code","tag-human-trafficking","tag-modern-slavery","tag-smeta","tag-smeta-audit"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vwa.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6310","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vwa.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vwa.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vwa.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vwa.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6310"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.vwa.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6310\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vwa.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6310"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vwa.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6310"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vwa.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6310"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}What is modern slavery?<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
What can be done?<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Ethical audits ensure employees are treated fairly and with respect<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Find out more about ethical audits<\/h4>\n\n\n\n