While Business Systems (UK) Ltd and OPEX Hosting are not required under s.54 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 to have an Anti-Slavery Policy we recognise that it is a serious subject and consequently set out here the steps that we have taken – and are continuing to take – to ensure that modern slavery or human trafficking is not taking place within our business or supply chain.

Modern slavery encompasses slavery, servitude, human trafficking and forced labour. Business Systems (UK) Ltd have a zero-tolerance approach to any form of modern slavery. We are committed to acting ethically and with integrity and transparency in all business dealings and to putting effective systems and controls in place to safeguard against any form of modern slavery taking place within the business or our supply chain.

Our business

Business Systems (UK) Ltd (BSL) and OPEX Hosting.

Our business revolves around:

• The development and provision of call recording, workforce optimisation and contact centre solutions including our own product Wordwatch and associated consultancy, implementation, and support services.

Our high-risk areas

We do not believe we have any high-risk areas relating to Modern Slavery or People Trafficking. All our permanent and temporary staff members and contractors are professional people who have been recruited through open channels and our suppliers are similar, professional, IT centric organisations.  Nonetheless, we have implemented a number of policies and practices that ensure concerns can be raised and acted upon.

Our policies

We operate a number of internal policies to ensure that we are conducting business in an ethical and transparent manner. These include:

1. Anti-slavery policy and statement (this document).  This policy sets out the organisation’s stance on modern slavery.
2. Recruitment and Promotion policy. We operate a robust recruitment policy, including conducting eligibility to work in the UK checks for all employees to safeguard against human trafficking or individuals being forced to work against their will.
3. Ethics and Whistleblowing policy. The purpose of this policy is to establish a culture of openness, trust, and integrity in our business practices.  We care as much about how results are achieved as we care about the results themselves. We will also protect any individual who makes us aware of any infraction of this policy. We will not tolerate retaliation against an employee for reporting a concern in good faith, even when no evidence is ultimately found to substantiate the report.
4. Equality policy. The purpose of this policy is: to promote equal treatment of all employees or potential employees. To prevent, reduce and stop all forms of unlawful discrimination and harassment and to ensure that all recruitment, promotions, transfers, training, development assessment, benefits, pay, terms and conditions of employment, redundancy and dismissals are determined on the basis of capability, qualifications, experience, skills and productivity rather than unlawful criteria.

Our suppliers

Business Systems (UK) Ltd and OPEX Hosting maintain a preferred key supplier list.  We conduct due diligence on all suppliers before allowing them to become a preferred key supplier.  This due diligence includes an online search to ensure that particular organisation has never been convicted of offenses relating to modern slavery.

Training

We conduct training for our procurement/buying team so that they understand the signs of modern slavery and what to do if they suspect that it is taking place within our supply chain.

Our performance indicators

We will know the effectiveness of the steps that we are taking to ensure that slavery and/or human trafficking is not taking place within our business or supply chain if:

• No reports are received from employees, the public, or law enforcement agencies to indicate that modern slavery practices have been identified.