October 18, 2017 — Co-op Colleagues
Tackling modern slavery #TheCoopWay
Today is national Anti-Slavery Day, an opportunity for charities, businesses, local authorities and the government to come together and raise awareness of modern slavery and human trafficking.
Our Co-op is supporting this as part of our commitment to tackling modern slavery – something our members overwhelmingly voted for at our AGM.
To find out why this day is so important, and what our Co-op is doing to tackle modern slavery, check out this blog post from Steve Murrells.
Join the conversation! 11 Comments
Comments are closed.
Great ɑrticle! We will be linking to this particuⅼarly grеat post on our site.
Keep up the good writing.
I know we have at least one person we’ve hired as a result of our partnership with global victim support charity City Hearts and the Snowdrop Project.
How are we progressing against our target of 30 for the year ?
Hi Internet Meister. I’ll ask the Campaigns team about this and get back to you. Thanks ^Rachel
Hi there. At the moment ten people have been offered placements (these are either happening now, or have finished), and five of these people have had job offers so far. Another 12 placements are being set up as we speak.
^Lara
Technology can help here.
Co-op digital have demonstrated a way where we can assure the provenance of our supply chain and track, for example each bunch of flowers we sell, back to the farm where they grew, and the worker that picked them and the date and time they were picked.
That would strongly demonstrate a commitment to reducing the scope for modern slavery in our supply chain.
https://digitalblog.coop.co.uk/2017/01/30/the-provenance-alpha-building-trust-from-transparency/
Thanks for sharing Internet Meister. This is really interesting, and you’re right, it could be another way that we guard against modern slavery in our supply chains. Is this going to roll out and include other products?
^Lara
Come and visit our warehouse in st Helens, you’ll see slavery there, not in a way your publishing but in a way you get treated!! We’re just worker ants with a number and the soldier ants point the finger! Horrible environment to work in, moral very low, attitudes from mgrs disgusting.
All looks good one paper that the warehouse is hitting its targets and lovely posters all round you saying, be safe get home safe etc,mental health awareness etc. so far from the truth in here, every health and safety policy id’s getting broke on every shift and it’s allowed!! Mgrs aware of what goes on but turn blind eye to it, as long as colleagues hit targets there not bothered what goes on. It’s a culture in here. Sad but true, yes I could leave but job’s are not easy to cone by these days, yes I could mention to mgrs but this has been tried by numerous colleagues and you just get treated differently, Its a put up and shut up environment.
Hi John,
There are a few ways you can raise concerns if you’re unhappy – most are listed on our colleague site, but here’s a recap:
– Talkback is one of the best ways – this closed a couple of weeks ago, so I hope you filled this in?
– Both our grievance policy and whistleblowing policy are on our colleague site. Best to look at these if you have health and safety concerns – (https://colleagues.coop.co.uk/working-here/people-policies)
– All colleagues have access to 24/7 advice and support from our confidential Employee Assistance Programme, and you can talk to them about anything – (https://colleagues.coop.co.uk/working-here/employee-assistance-programme-24-hour-colleague-support)
I hope things get better for you ^Lara
And don’t forget that this modern slavery can be out in the open. Cheap car washes, cheap nail bars etc are all indicators of services being provided below the true cost and should be treated with suspicion. Those who use these services only assist the traffickers. Not all of this awful slavery is hidden away.
Good call Kay, you’re spot on. At a recent slavery conference where Paul Gerrard spoke, the police identified nail bars, car washes and brothels as having a high risk of modern slavery. The police and anti-slavery commissioner are running campaigns to raise awareness of slavery in these areas, and we’re doing everything we can to make sure it doesn’t happen in our supply chains – even with third parties we don’t employ directly.
^Lara
Sad to say but very true….