Slavery and Human Trafficking Statement
Forced, bonded or compulsory labour, human trafficking and other kinds of slavery and servitude represent some of the gravest forms of human rights abuse in any society. We will not tolerate any such activities within our own operations or within our supply chain and are committed to taking appropriate steps to ensure that everyone who works for Multitone – in any capacity, anywhere in the world – benefits from a working environment in which their fundamental rights and freedoms are respected. While this is our first public statement addressing these issues in line with the requirements of the new UK Modern Slavery Act (2015), we have been focused on the rights and well-being of the people who work for Multitone – and for our suppliers – for many years.
Multitone Group is one of the world’s premium critical communications companies. Our business is connectivity: we build critical wireless communication systems that are used in 146 countries around the world. Our manufacturing is in Malaysia and the United Kingdom and we are aware that our supply chain includes countries that have been accused of questionable employment practices in the past and for that reason we have taken every reasonable measure that we can to ensure that our suppliers are free of any abuses of employees. Our supplier terms and conditions include specific clauses to this effect.
Beliefs and principles
We fully acknowledge our responsibility to respect human rights as set out in the International Bill of Human Rights. The IBHR informs all of our policies related to the rights and freedoms of every individual who works for us, either as a direct Multitone employee or indirectly through our supply chain. We are also committed to implementing the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights throughout our operations. Respect for the dignity of the individual – and the importance of each individual’s human rights – form the basis of the behaviours we expect in every workplace worldwide. We will not accept any form of discrimination, harassment or bullying and we require all of our managers to implement policies designed to increase equality of opportunity and inclusion for all Multitone employees. We have also developed and implemented policies and processes which are intended to extend these commitments through our supply chain. These include requiring suppliers to take measures to avoid any form of forced, bonded or compulsory labour (or any other kind of slavery or human trafficking) within their own operations.
Every supplier who works for us is required to sign up to and then abide by, terms and conditions. These commitments extend down through the supply chain, so that a supplier with whom we have a direct contractual relationship (a Tier 1 supplier) in turn bears the responsibility for ensuring compliance across their own direct supply chain (a Tier 2 supplier from Multitone’s perspective) and so on. We stipulate a range of ethical, labour and environmental standards that we expect to be followed across our supply chain including areas such as child labour, health and safety, working hours, discrimination and disciplinary processes.
- The specific requirements regarding forced labour risks make explicit reference to slavery and human trafficking:
- the Supplier shall not use any form of forced, bonded, compulsory labour, slavery or human trafficking;
- the Supplier’s employees shall be entitled to leave work or terminate their employment with reasonable notice. Employees shall be free to leave work after such reasonable notice period expires. All employment shall be voluntary;
- the Supplier shall provide each of its employees with an employment contract which contains such a reasonable notice period; and
- the Supplier shall not require employees to lodge deposits of money or withhold payment or place debt upon employees or require employees to surrender any government-issued identification, passports, or work permits as a condition of employment.
For and on behalf of the Board
Mr Ed Paterson
Chief Executive Officer
