Our driving purpose at Jude’s is to bring life to people and the planet.
People and relationships are at the heart of Jude’s and the process of becoming a B Corp has cemented our commitment to having a positive impact on people throughout our supply chain.
It takes the combined effort of many people across our supply chain to make our products. We want to do everything we can to make sure all these people are working in safe, healthy and fair environments. We recognise that the food industry is high risk for the issue of modern slavery and human trafficking, and this statement is our response to the UK Modern Slavery Act 2015 and outlines our position on workers’ rights and modern slavery. It applies to all parts of our business, and we encourage all our business partners and suppliers to uphold these principles and to adopt similar approaches within their businesses.
Jude’s Operations
Our recruitment practices are designed to ensure that everyone who works for us does so freely and legally. We conduct relevant employment risk assessments, have fair recruitment and employment practices, and ensure that human rights are respected across our operations. Before employing any new member of staff, we verify addresses, bank account details and right to work in the UK documentation. Temporary and agency workers are at higher risk. When we use such workers in our manufacturing operations, we make sure that we have undertaken relevant checks to protect them. We carry out relevant risk assessments for these workers, and ensure that any agencies we use are reputable, members of professional bodies and that they have Modern Slavery policies themselves.
As part of our onboarding process, staff are provided with training on the risk of modern slavery and our whistle blowing policy. Staff are encouraged to report any suspected wrongdoing, including human rights violations such as modern slavery or human trafficking. We operate a confidential and anonymous whistleblowing policy for our employees. All reports are recorded by an independent third party.
Every employee of Jude’s is expected to adhere to all UK employment laws and to uphold all relevant workers’ rights as outlined above and is aware of this responsibility. All Jude’s employees are made aware of all policies and procedures, including this statement on our approach to Modern Slavery.
Supply Chain
We are committed to ensuring that Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking do not occur in our supply chain. We do this through our Jude’s Ethical Sourcing Policy, which is based on the ETI Base Code. We expect all our suppliers to adhere to the Base Code and have a zero-tolerance policy for any form of Modern Slavery or Human Trafficking. Adhering to the ETI Base Code is a mandatory requirement for doing business with Jude’s and it is subject to checks and audits.
If there are any cases where our suppliers are found not to be meeting the Base Code standards we work with them to help them improve. We reserve the right, however to stop working with a supplier, should that supplier not meet our ethical standards and have no commitment to do so in a reasonable timeframe.
We carry out due diligence on our supply chain through our Ethical Priority Risk Assessment. This is partly based on human rights risk, which is calculated from country ratings from the International Trade Union Council Global Rights Index and the Global Slavery Index. This risk assessment is used alongside our Sustainability Self Assessment Questionnaire which allows us to investigate supply chains, monitor the risks and where necessary follow up on required improvements.
In the event of a report of, or the discovering of, a situation of modern slavery or any other serious violation we would seek to verify and investigate immediately. We would set in place clear remediation.
As we strive to achieve our purpose of bringing life to people and the planet we believe that business can and should be a force for good for everyone in society. As part of this Jude’s is committed to minimising risks of modern slavery so that everyone within our operations and supply chain works freely and legally, in an environment that is fair, healthy and safe.
James Wright
Managing Director
3rd April 2023