Modern Slavery Policy

Modern slavery & trafficking

Synyega employs the highest ethical and professional standards and will always comply with all local laws and regulations applicable to our business; Synyega’s leadership team is committed to preventing slavery and human trafficking in its corporate activities and its supply chain.  Synyega Limited expects the same high standards which we set for ourselves from our partners and suppliers with whom we engage.

Our ethical approach is emphasised in our employee handbook and company policies, a summarised version of this is shown below.

Definitions 

Relevance

Modern slavery is a complex and multi-faceted crime and tackling it requires all of us to play a part. At first glance, you may think this whole subject is irrelevant to us, but it's not.  At a very basic level, of course preventing exploitation and human trafficking, and protecting our workforce and reputation makes good business sense.  The Modern Slavery Act 2015 (MSA 2015) recognises the important part businesses can and should play in tackling slavery and encourages them to do more.  With this in mind, we encourage our team to pay particularly close attention to our supply chain and any outsourced activities, particularly to jurisdictions that may not have adequate safeguards.

Responsibilities

Our company, our managers and colleagues have responsibilities to ensure our fellow workers are safeguarded, treated fairly and with dignity.  Everyone must observe this policy and be aware that turning a blind eye is unacceptable and simply not an option.  We will maintain clear policies and procedures preventing exploitation and human trafficking, and protecting our workforce and reputation be clear about our recruitment policy, check our supply chains and lead by example by making appropriate checks on all employees, recruitment agencies, suppliers, etc to ensure we know who is working for us to ensure we have in place an open and transparent grievance process for all staff, seek to raise awareness so that our colleagues know what we are doing to promote their welfare and make a clear statement to demonstrate that we take our responsibilities to our employees and our clients seriously.

Our Managers will listen and be approachable to colleagues and respond appropriately, if they are told something that might indicate a colleague or any other person is in an exploitative situation they will remain alert to indicators of slavery and raise the awareness of our colleagues, by discussing issues and providing training, so that everyone can spot the signs of trafficking and exploitation and know what to do and use their experience and professional judgement to gauge situations.  We encourage our employees to keep their eyes and ears open—if you suspect someone (a colleague or someone in our supply chain) is being controlled or forced by someone else to work or provide services, follow our reporting procedure if a colleague tells them something they may think might indicate they are or someone else is being exploited or ill-treated.  Employees are asked to tell our leadership team if they think there is more we can do to prevent people from being exploited.
 

Identifying slavery

There is no typical victim and some victims do not understand they have been exploited and are entitled to help and support. However, the following key signs could indicate that someone may be a slavery or trafficking victim (The following list is not an exhaustive)...

• the person is not in possession of their own passport, identification or travel documents
• the person is acting as though they are being instructed or coached by someone else
• they allow others to speak for them when spoken to directly
• they are dropped off at and collected from work
• the person is withdrawn or they appear frightened
• the person does not seem to be able to contact friends or family freely
• the person has limited social interaction or contact with people outside their immediate environment.

Reporting slavery

We encourage our employees to talk to us about any concerns that may help stop someone else from being exploited or abused.   We encourage our staff that if they consider someone in immediate danger, dial 999.  Otherwise, they should discuss any concerns with their line manager who will decide a course of action and provide any further advice.  Not all victims may want to be helped and there may be instances where reporting a suspected trafficking case puts the potential victim at risk, so it is important that in the absence of an immediate danger, employees should discuss any concerns with a line manager before taking any further action.