MAG becomes first UK airport operator to join Slave-Free Alliance
MAG, the owner of Manchester, London Stansted and East Midlands airports, has today announced that it is the first airport operator in the UK to become a member of the Slave-Free Alliance.
MAG’s membership will allow Slave-Free Alliance to help identify areas across all MAG’s supply chains, from construction to retail, manufacturing to facilities management. The expertise of the Slave-Free Alliance allows them to independently review, benchmark and develop processes to help combat modern slavery.
To complement its membership of the Slave-Free Alliance, MAG is working to create its own internal processes to identify and combat the risk of modern slavery within its airports, which includes the education and training of its own staff about possible signs that someone maybe a victim of exploitation.
Tricia Williams, Chief Customer Officer, MAG said: “By becoming a member of the Slave-Free Alliance we’re taking a proactive approach to ensure that there is transparency in our business and throughout our supply chain, to make sure that nobody is exploited, and we expect our suppliers to share this commitment. We’re engaging with all suppliers to eliminate any practices that might compromise the basic human rights of workers in our supply chain, and we will refuse to do business with any organisation which does not consistently uphold standards.
“Our membership of the Alliance is another step in our journey to protect those working for our airports and their suppliers, and to educate ourselves through staff education so that we are able to effectively identify instances of modern slavery. We’re proud to be the first UK airport operator to become a member, and hope our work encourages others within our industry to do the same. There is no reason for modern slavery to exist in our society, and we will work hard to ensure it doesn’t happen in connection with our business.”
Slave-Free Alliance Director Marc Stanton said: “It is fantastic that MAG has chosen to take this positive step and publicly show its commitment to a slave-free supply chain through its membership of Slave-Free Alliance. We are particularly pleased to see MAG’s expectation that its suppliers take their own steps to protect human rights and prevent exploitation. We look forward to working closely with MAG and helping them become a world-leader in their sector on the issue of modern slavery prevention.”
About Slave-Free Alliance
Slave-Free Alliance is a social enterprise launched by anti-slavery charity Hope for Justice to support organisations in working towards a slave-free supply chain. Membership of Slave-Free Alliance is open to all organisations, including those from the public sector and voluntary sector. As we are a social enterprise wholly owned by Hope for Justice, all profits made are reinvested into charitable anti-slavery projects around the world.
A wide variety of economic sectors are represented among our membership, including: business and professional services, engineering, data analysis and IT, utilities and energy, environmental services, food manufacturing, agriculture, insurance, legal, pharmaceutical, property services, recruitment, retail, transport and waste management, and, with the recent addition of The University of Manchester, higher education. Today’s news has expanded these sectors into airport operations.
Membership includes global multinationals, household names like Aviva, Dixons Carphone, Clarks and Arriva, as well as SMEs with only a few employees, all sharing a common goal: to work towards a slave-free supply chain.
Slave-Free Alliance is the business sector’s acknowledgement that slavery in supply chains is real and a key factor driving human trafficking in the developing world and across borders to countries like the UK. It can affect any unprepared organisation, no matter their sector, though some industries are at particular risk – notably waste and recycling, agriculture, low-skilled manufacturing, hand car washes, beauty salons and the hospitality, catering and restaurant sector.
With surveys showing that 77% of organisations think there is a likelihood of finding modern slavery in their operations or supply chains, membership of Slave-Free Alliance is a simple way for employers to get the answers and support they need to combat this growing threat.
For more information visit www.slavefreealliance.org
