CIWM helps launch IPHR’s Waste & Recycling Modern Slavery Protocol
Marking 2022’s anti-slavery day on Tuesday 18 October, CIWM hosted a webinar on behalf of the Indirect Procurement Human Rights Forum (IPHR) to launch the brand-new IPHR Waste & Recycling Modern Slavery Protocol.
In July 2021 CIWM and ESA announced a joint commitment to tackle slavery, forced labour and human trafficking across the industry. Since the launch, CIWM has been supporting a number of organisations and initiatives to reduce the risk of modern slavery across its membership base and the wider sector.
The IHPR Modern Slavery Protocol is a voluntary agreement and public pledge of commitment of organisations to work collaboratively to tackle modern slavery and prevent exploitation or abuse of workers.
Slavery experts put estimates of actual victims of modern slavery in the UK at around 100,000 people[1]. Additionally, in 2018, it was reported that two thirds of victims of modern slavery had been placed within the waste and recycling sector at some point during their period of exploitation[2].
The six-page protocol sets out how organisations in the sector will take action to protect vulnerable and exploited workers and help build understanding of risks and embed responsible practices to improve standards. Following on from CIWM’s earlier commitment to tackle slavery, forced labour and human trafficking across the sector in July 2021, Ray Parmenter, Head of Technical and Policy at CIWM commented: “It’s important that all stakeholders in the waste and recycling sector play their part in eliminating this
abhorrent practice that blights our industries, and this voluntary protocol is another tool to help us achieve this.
“We would urge everyone in the sector to act upon the advice and guidance contained within this protocol, as well as the IPHR Modern Slavery Toolkit that was published in October 2021.”
For more information, and to download the protocol, please visit https://bit.ly/3eFRkzr
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