Elite Hire Consultants (“the Company”) is a privately-owned company registered in England and Wales. The Company is carrying on business in the UK as a recruitment business specialising in recruiting professionals and blue-collar workers into a wide range of public services including but not limited to: education, health, government, housing, social care and charities.
The Company was established in 2002 and today operates out of offices in the City of London, Glasgow, Manchester & Birmingham. The Company currently employees under 220 people but engages, supplies and pays in excess of 2000 temporary agency workers through its payroll, in its capacity as a temporary staffing company. The Company turns over in excess of £36 million each financial year and treats the threat of modern slavery as a matter of the utmost importance.
The Company is committed to the highest standards of integrity, transparency and accountability. It is therefore vital that it can demonstrate that all appropriate steps are taken to ensure that slavery and human trafficking is not taking place in any of its supply chains or in any part of its own business.
To hold an individual in slavery is a violation of fundamental human rights and a crime. The Company recognises this takes various forms, such as slavery, servitude, forced/compulsory labour and human trafficking, all of which have in common the deprivation of a person’s liberty by another for the purposes of exploiting them for personal or commercial gain. Accordingly, guidance on how to recognise and respond to the signs of modern slavery is published for the Company’s employees together with the Company’s Anti-Modern Slavery Policy which sets out how the Company aims to prevent, detect and report modern slavery in any part of its business or supply chains.
The Company takes a zero-tolerance approach to modern slavery and is committed to acting ethically and with integrity in all its business dealings and relationships and in implementing and enforcing effective systems and controls to ensure modern slavery is not taking place anywhere in its UK business operations or in any of the Company’s supply chains. The Company has an internal Training and Development department which is responsible for ensuring all staff’s training and development needs are met including around the identification and reporting of concerns around modern slavery. The Company expects the same high standards from its suppliers, contractors and other third parties. As part the Company’s contracting processes, it expects that its suppliers will hold their own suppliers to the same standards set out in our policy statement below.
All staff and third parties are required to raise any concerns about any issue or suspicion of modern slavery in any parts of the Company’s business or supply chains at the earliest possible stage. The Company encourages openness and will support anyone who raises genuine concerns in good faith under its Anti-Modern Slavery Policy, even if they turn out to be mistaken. The Company is committed to ensuring no one suffers any detrimental treatment as a result of reporting in good faith their suspicion that modern slavery of whatever form is or may be taking place in any part of the business or in any of the Company’s supply chains. Detrimental treatment includes dismissal, disciplinary action, threats or other unfavourable treatment connected with raising a concern. If any staff believe they have suffered any such treatment, the individual is encouraged to inform either their manager or the HR Department immediately and to report the matter to the proper authorities.
The Company fully supports all national and international efforts to promote ethical principles and work practices and in particular the efforts to prevent exploitation and abuse associated with modern slavery and human trafficking.
The board of directors has overall responsibility for ensuring this Company’s Modern Slavery Policy complies with the Company’s legal and ethical obligations, and that all those Staff and third parties under its control comply with it and has approved this Statement.
Policy Scope
This policy applies to all persons working for the Company or on its behalf in any capacity, including employees at all levels, directors and officers (“Staff”) and third parties including agency workers, customers, suppliers seconded workers, volunteers, interns, agents, contractors, external consultants (“Third Parties”).
Purpose of the Policy
This policy describes how the Company will prevent, detect and report modern slavery in any part of its business or supply chains.
Compliance With the Policy
All staff and third parties must comply with the Modern Slavery Policy and avoid any activity that might lead to, or suggest, a breach of the Policy .
All staff and third parties are required to raise any concerns about any issue or suspicion of modern slavery in any parts of the Company’s business or supply chains of any supplier tier at the earliest possible stage.
If any Staff believe or suspect a breach of this Policy has occurred or that it may occur the individual must notify either their manager and/or Compliance as soon as possible.
If Staff are unsure about whether a particular act, the treatment of workers more generally, or their working conditions within any tier of the Company’s supply chains constitutes any of the various forms of modern slavery, this should be raised to Compliance as soon as possible.
All managers are responsible for ensuring that the Modern Slavery Policy and the Company’s zero-tolerance approach to modern slavery is communicated to all employees. And for ensuring those individuals reporting to them understand and comply with the policy and are given adequate and regular training as applicable on the policy and the issue of modern slavery in supply chains.
Management have day-to-day responsibility for implementing the policy, monitoring its use and effectiveness, dealing with any queries about it, and auditing internal control systems and procedures to ensure they are effective in countering modern slavery.
All managers who are responsible for procurement of goods and/or services must ensure that the Modern Slavery Policy and the Company’s zero-tolerance approach to modern slavery is communicated to all third parties during the procurement process and/or at the outset of each business relationship.
Any employee who breaches this policy will face disciplinary action, which could result in dismissal for misconduct or gross misconduct and/or referral to the authorities.
Supply Chain Due Diligence
The Company procures the services of certain UK based suppliers, an up to date list of which is retained by the Accounts team overseen by the Finance Director. These suppliers provide a range of goods and services to assist the Company’s business, including IT and other professional services such as legal and accountancy, stationery supplies and office cleaning services. As part of its due diligence when procuring services the Company requires each supplier to comply with relevant legislation.
The Company supplies its services into the sectors detailed within this policy document. It does not experience regular seasonal surges in demand except in education where activity drops significantly during the school holiday periods.
The Company includes a provision in its standard terms of business with its clients in which each party warrants to the other that it takes all reasonable steps to prevent the exploitation and abuse associated with modern slavery and human trafficking.
The Company may terminate its relationship with other third parties if they breach the Modern Slavery Policy.
Review of the Policy
The Compliance Department has overall responsibility for reviewing the Modern Slavery Policy.
Special Issues Relating to the Supply of Temporary Agency Workers
Elite Hire operates in both the permanent and temporary recruitment markets in all the sector disciplines it serves. When introducing candidates into the direct employment of the client employer the Company operates as an employment agency as defined by the Employment Agencies Act 1973 (as amended). The resulting contractual employment relationship is directly between the candidate introduced by the Company and the employing client who engages them directly and controls their day to day activities as their substantive employer.
When supplying a temporary agency worker to client hirers, the Company acts as an employment business as defined by the Employment Agencies Act 1973 (as amended), and engages the worker supplied into each temporary assignment, under a contract for services. This does not give rise to an employment relationship either between the Company and the temporary agency worker or the client and the temporary agency worker. The temporary agency worker is nevertheless a worker as defined by the Employment Rights Act 1996 and is entitled to all ‘worker’ rights under the employment legislation including, but not limited to, the right to be paid at, at least, the national living wage for all work done, the right not to have any unlawful deductions made from their wages, the right to the statutory minimum paid holiday and rest breaks under the Working Time Regulations 1998, the right to statutory sick and statutory maternity pay, subject to qualification, the right not to be unlawfully discriminated against and the rights to the protections afforded under the Agency Workers Regulations 2010 and the Conduct of Employment Agencies and Employment Businesses Regulations 2003.
In the tripartite relationship between the worker, the Company and the client, the Company is responsible for managing the administration relating to the engagement of the temporary agency worker. For example, the Company is responsible for paying the temporary agency worker at the agreed rate and at the agreed intervals and for making the required tax and national insurance deductions and contributions in respect of the worker, including pension. Furthermore, the Company is responsible for paying the temporary agency workers it supplies any statutory sick pay or statutory maternity pay, subject to them qualifying for such payments in accordance with the ordinary qualifying criteria. Both the Company and the Client carry a joint responsibility, together with the temporary agency worker themselves, for ensuring the health and safety of the temporary agency worker while on assignment and the Client is responsible for supervising and controlling the actual work done by the temporary agency worker during the assignment. In addition, both parties have respective obligations to the temporary agency worker under the Agency Workers Regulations 2010.
Training
The Company has an internal online Training and Development system which is used for ensuring all Staff training and development needs are met. The training provided includes sales and business development courses, people management courses, compliance training, discrimination and equal opportunities training, bribery and corruption training and many other ad hoc courses relating to specific employee or discipline requirements.