At Marcel of London and all of its subsidiaries, it is in our culture to treat people of all races and creeds with dignity and respect. Our family business has always endeavoured and strives in conducting our business activities and doing business ethically the “right” way.
We are fully committed to preventing slavery, exploitation and human trafficking. This is why approaching embraces zero tolerance to modern slavery and are fully committed to preventing slavery and human trafficking in our operations and supply chain. We support the government’s objectives to eradicate modern slavery, exploitation and human trafficking.
Our business processes and supply chains
Marcel of London products are sourced from all over the world and it’s our duty to make sure that the trusted suppliers we use adhere to our modern day slavery policy. We also make sure that our staff are well looked after.
As anticipated, the pandemic had a significant influence on our supply chain during the 2020-21 financial year and we will keep this under review during the years ahead.
Policies
We have in place a variety of policies for identifying and preventing slavery and human trafficking in our operations and to protect worker rights and to promote a safe and fair supply chain:
- Recruitment policy – we have a robust recruitment policy which includes conducting checks that employees are eligible to work in the UK to safeguard against human trafficking or individuals being forced to work against their will. We endeavor to ensure that employees making recruitment and selection decisions do not discriminate and all applicants will receive fair treatment;
- Equal opportunities policy – we are committed to preventing discrimination and encouraging diversity amongst our workforce. We are opposed to all forms of unlawful and unfair discrimination;
- Whistleblowing policy – we operate a whistleblower disclosure system available to all members of staff so that employees can raise concerns about how their colleagues are being treated or practices within our business or supply chain without fear of reprisal;
- Supplier Code of Practice – which stipulates our requirements, including the obligation for our suppliers to operate in a responsible and ethical manner, the prohibition of child labour and forced labour, appropriate health and safety standards and procedures and compliance with local laws in respect of working hours, minimum wages, overtime and employee benefits;
- Marcel of London’s Terms and Conditions of trade that all our suppliers must sign up to and adhere to. These specifically require all suppliers to adhere to universally acceptable standards of business practice and must not engage in unethical, immoral or commercially unacceptable business activities. Our suppliers must adopt our social, ethical and environmental principles.
- We require all our suppliers to adhere to the Kimberley Process which seeks to tackle the trade in conflict diamonds around the world. We further require all our suppliers to commit to the ‘Golden Rules’ of the ‘No Dirty Gold’ campaign which we have espoused since 2006.
We are looking at the benefit of putting in place an overarching Modern Slavery policy for the business.
Due Diligence
As part of our initiative to identify and mitigate risk, we conduct due diligence on all new suppliers both at the outset of any relationship and on an ongoing basis.
We seek to:
- Identify and assess potential risk areas in our supply chain;
- Mitigate the risk of human slavery and trafficking occurring in our supply chains;
- Monitor potential risk areas in our supply chain;
- Protect whistleblowers.
We have reviewed the Global Slavery Index in assessing the likely risks associate with countries where we have business interests and relationships.
Our buying team is small and closely involved in the process, with a close working knowledge of suppliers.
Training and awareness
All members of staff undergo a full induction process on joining the company. This includes training on all relevant policies and procedures of Marcel of London.
Members of the company involved in supply chain and HR are reminded to be constantly mindful of the risks of slavery and human trafficking in our business.
Staff have received training and guidance on the measures the business is taking to protect our people and our customers. These measures were kept under review and updated in accordance with the frequently changing government advice.
Risk of slavery and human trafficking in our business
We will continue to work with our suppliers to ensure that to the best of our and their knowledge, our supply chain is free from abuse by slavery and human trafficking.
We will keep under review the steps we are taking, and any we need to take to ensure that there is no slavery or human trafficking in our supply chain. We acknowledge that it is not practical for us to have a direct relationship with all links in the supply chain, as this would ultimately be to the mine, utility generator etc. We expect our suppliers and those we work with to adhere to the Ethical Trading Initiatives Base Code.
We find that preparing our annual statement is a useful and thought provoking process. Modern slavery is a complex issue and can be difficult to identify. The ongoing review process is important for maintaining diligence on this issue. We are fortunate that we have not found any cases within the company, nor become aware of any within the supply chain. However, we will not be complacent an will remain thorough in our response to this risk. We continue to rely on our personal knowledge of those with whom we do business and the trust we have in those relationships. We recognise the need to keep our policies and processes under review.
This last year we have noticed that many of our national and overseas contacts have had different working patterns with many working from home and working in a different way. we are pleased that we were able to ensure people felt safe in the ways they were working and will be monitoring this during the year ahead as working patterns evolve and develop.
This is our fourth Statement published in accordance with section 54 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 and relates to the financial year ended 31 March 2021. It has been approved by the board of Warren James (Jewellers) Limited. It sets out the steps taken by Warren James (Jewellers) Limited and other relevant group companies, including Warren James Holdings Limited to identify and prevent modern slavery and human trafficking in its business and supply chains.
Toyin Seweje,
Co-founder and CEO
05th August 2022