Modern slavery is a crime and a violation of fundamental human rights. It takes various forms, such as slavery, servitude, forced and compulsory labour and human trafficking, all of which have in common the deprivation of a person's liberty by another in order to exploit them for personal or commercial gain.
Oxwash is committed to combat slavery and human trafficking in accordance with the Modern Slavery Act 2015. This statement describes the steps taken by Oxwash within the financial year ending 31st December 2021 to prevent modern slavery and human trafficking in our supply chain.
Organisational structure
Oxwash provides sustainable laundry and drycleaning to customers nationwide in the UK, with operations in Oxford, Cambridge and London.
Oxwash has no ownership interests in the supply chain but cooperates with approximately 20 key suppliers and 10 subcontractors across the UK and Europe. Our Supplier Code of Conduct sets out our requirements to our suppliers, and we regularly audit our suppliers to ensure they comply with our requirements.
Oxwash recognises that a collaborative approach is needed, we work directly with our suppliers to build capacity and to make long term improvements at their factories and organisations.
Policies in relation to Slavery and Human Trafficking
In our Supplier Code of Conduct, we set high standards to our suppliers and subcontractors to ensure, among others, the respect for human rights and labour rights in their organisations are understood and met. We set out our requirements for living wages, child labour, working conditions and labour rights.
Due Diligence Process
We seek to minimise the adverse impacts of our business in our own operations as well as our supply chain. Our due diligence procedures are based on the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human rights, and the International Labour Organisation principles.
Based on our due diligence process we have identified that the highest risk of violating human rights is in some areas of our supply chain. We have identified forced labour, discrimination and child labour to be forms of slavery and human trafficking that could occur.
Prevention and effectiveness training
In order to avoid adverse impact on human rights in our supply chain, we take necessary measures to improve working conditions for the workers and to protect their rights. The foundation of our due diligence in the supply chain is through third party audits or our own audits through visits to our suppliers ensuring that they are in compliance with our Code of Conduct. This way we can identify issues that may need to be prevented, mitigated or remediated and strengthen our knowledge about where and how to engage further. Our aim is to help create a strong foundation for management and workers, which they can use in their further joint efforts to ensure workers’ rights in factories, hubs and organisations in our supply chain.
Read our Supplier Code of Conduct here.
