MODERN SLAVERY STATEMENT

Modern Slavery is the severe exploitation of other people’s liberty for personal or commercial gain. Modern slavery includes but is not limited to, forced labour, domestic servitude, and human trafficking.

As an ethical and socially responsible Workwear company, we are committed to reviewing and improving our practices to help with the combatting of modern slavery.

This statement is made pursuant to section 54(1) of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 and constitutes our slavery and human trafficking statement for the financial year ending April 2023.

 

Our Business Structure

Mister Uniform Ltd was established in 2012 and has since been an established supplier and distributor of healthcare and workwear garments, and more recently, PPE. We supply to both the educational and care sectors. We are based in Thornbury, near Bristol, with all our sales and production teams located within one building.

We do not manufacture clothing ourselves but offer and distribute well known trusted brands of clothing such as Alexandra, Fruit of the Loom, Regatta, Result, Sols, Gildan, Portwest and Uneek. These brands have been established for many years and are sold across Europe and the US. 

Our Supply Chains & Policies

All garments we supply are via the major UK based wholesalers, including Alexandra Workwear, Pencarrie and Uneek. Mister Uniform is committed to ensuring that there is no modern slavery or human trafficking in its supply chains. Therefore, we still have a duty to vet any new brands we supply and their associated supply chains to comply with our Modern Slavery commitments. As a result, we have set up internal processes to support these polices and commitments (which are supported and tracked internally using either our ISO9001 or ISO14001 Management accreditations).

Our vetting process includes requesting and checking certification and documentation to show that the supplier had received both SEDEX and WRAP accreditations.

WRAP was formed out of the desire to create an independent and objective body to help apparel and footwear factories around the world verify that they are operating in compliance with local laws and internationally accepted standards of ethical workplace practices. SEDEX certification enables businesses to work together to better manage their social and environmental performance and improve working conditions throughout their supply chains.

Our Policies within the Workplace

Mister Uniform regularly reviews its own workplace policies and procedures to assess their effectiveness in identifying and tackling modern slavery issues. Our workplace policies and procedures demonstrate our commitment to acting ethically and with integrity across all internal and external interactions.

Some of our policies that support our approach to tackling modern slavery and human trafficking include:

Dignity and Respect Policy

We are committed to providing a safe and open working environment within which all members of staff are always treated with dignity and respect.  The safe environment we have created encourages employees to be able to raise any concerns they have, knowing that these concerns will be acknowledged and acted upon in the strictest of confidence.

Equality, Diversity & Inclusion Policies

These policies detail how Mister Uniform encourages different cultures, perspectives and experiences within the business as we want to recruit, develop, and retain the most talented people, regardless of their background.

Health & Safety and Health & Wellbeing Policies

This sets out the expectations on employees and staff on the efforts to provide a safe and healthy workplace and to meet their own individual duty of care to others.

Safeguarding Policy

This aims to ensure the safety and welfare of visitors to our Head Office while on site here at Mister Uniform.

Recruitment policy (employment checks)

Mister Uniform employ the services of The HR Company who have helped us set up and have vetted our internal Human Resources and Recruitment policies to ensure they meet all current regulatory standards and best practice.

These internal polices help us ensure that our recruitment processes are non-discriminatory, and that staff have a right to work in the UK, with checks made before they start work and that all immigration requirements are met as specified by UK Visas & Immigration (UKVI). 

Living Wage 

With the recent increases in the cost of living, Mister Uniform is committed to ensuring that staff salaries are kept pace with the cost of living. As part of this initiative, we also request that relevant uniform suppliers & manufacturers to Mister Uniform also pay their staff the National Living wage or greater than the living wage. We are proud that all our staff here at Mister Uniform receive a pay range that exceed the Living Wage minimum suggested pay rate. We will continue to monitor the suggested levels and ensure that our staff are paid above this level as a minimum.

Safeguarding our Policies for the future

We will continue to review and where identified, amend our working practices to ensure the risks associated with modern slavery and human trafficking are negated/managed effectively. During the 2022-23 financial year we aim to:

Undertake training on our companies Modern Slavery Policies to all staff. This ensures all members of our team have a good understanding of our policies and how these are demonstrated across both our supply chains and within the workplace.

Ensure our procurement & supplier vetting process is regularly updated to reflect current knowledge and best practice about ethical procurement and includes dedicated material on modern slavery and human trafficking.

Continue to develop our knowledge and understanding of the high-risk suppliers / countries of origin by continuing to work closely with our trusted key suppliers and organisations such as SEDEX and WRAP

Approved by David Pinnock - Managing Director at Mister Uniform Ltd

Mister Uniform Ltd May 2018