Human rights statement

Modern Slavery Act 2015: Slavery and Human Trafficking Statement

Introduction from the Chief Executive Officer

This Statement sets out the steps that Lindström Oy (The Company), and its subsidiaries (together, Lindström Group) have taken and will be taking to ensure that slavery and human trafficking is not taking place in any part of our business, or that of our supply chain.

The group is committed to running its business responsibly, striving to maintain high ethical principles and having respect for human rights. One of our core values is Responsibility – to act in a responsible way in everything we do, operating to the highest standards, respecting local cultures and acting according to local laws and regulations. We expect our suppliers and partners to follow the same principles. As part of this, we are aware of our legal and moral obligations towards combating forced, bonded or compulsory labour, human trafficking and other kinds of slavery and are committed to monitoring and improving our practices in this area on an ongoing basis.

The group does not knowingly conduct business with individuals, agencies or companies that conduct, support, condone or facilitate slavery or human trafficking.

Our Business

Lindström is one of Europe’s leading textile service companies with 170 years of experience in the textile industry. We offer solutions for the cleanliness and interior design of facilities, corporate clothing and protection. We employ over 4000 employees, operate from over 80 locations over 24 countries across Europe and Asia and our group revenue for the year ending December 2017 was €358m.

Our Policy on Slavery and Human Trafficking

We are committed throughout the group to high standards of corporate governance and believe in behaving responsibly in all of our actions. We are committed to supporting the UN’s Sustainable Development goals, and in particular Goal 8: to promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all. Our goal is to grow in a sustainable manner and take care of the wellbeing of all of our employees. In addition we demand responsible practices from all of our suppliers.

As part of this commitment, we are committed to enforcing effective systems and controls to ensure slavery and human trafficking is not taking place in our business or in our supply chain. Our Employee and Supplier Codes of Conduct require all employees and partners to act with the highest degree of integrity and morality and understand and comply with all relevant laws and legal systems of the respective countries we operate in.

Our Supply Chain

Our main suppliers are located in Asia (China, Malaysia and Pakistan), the EU and Africa (Madagascar), though we also source locally in India for our operations there. We carefully evaluate each of our suppliers before starting co-operation and will only partner with companies that act responsibly and commit to our ethical policies.

Employees

All new employees are subject to pre-employment checks to confirm their identity and eligibility to work in the country prior to them starting work in Lindström. Information is provided to all employees on their statutory rights including any benefits they may be entitled to by virtue of their employment. We pay all directly employed labour at least the living or minimum wage, as relevant. Where recruitment agencies are used, we ensure they comply with all legal requirements. These procedures collectively help to address our on-going commitment to protect our employees’ human rights and the elimination of all forms of forced and compulsory labour.

Further steps and Due Diligence

Our focus on modern slavery and human trafficking is part of a larger effort towards supply chain transparency and accountability. We believe that our suppliers and other third parties should work in accordance with our ethical standards and require that their supply chain also complies. As part of any tender process, we require prospective suppliers to sign our Supplier Code of Conduct, and will not progress to working with any supplier who doesn’t comply with our own values.

We evaluate our suppliers on the basis of operational risk and the risks associated with the suppliers themselves. In the country risk mapping, we evaluate, among other things, the level of Government oversight of the contracting countries, human rights issues, the use of child labour and the level of corruption. We carry out audits of key suppliers according to the annual audit plan, we are systematically following any possible shortcomings and correcting them. Approximately one third of our textile purchases come from China, Pakistan and Madagascar, which we have classified as risk countries. We mitigate our risks during the initial supplier assessments and regular audits, all suppliers must discuss in detail the meanings of the points in the code of conduct and discussions are registered on our purchasing database. During pre-audits of prospective suppliers and audits of existing suppliers, we check all workforce related issues such as working conditions and employment documentation.

We are in the process of reviewing our employee and supplier codes of conduct to ensure that our employees and suppliers comply with our values. This already requires respect for basic human rights of employees (including freedom from forced labour), prohibition of child labour and health and safety of employees, it will be expanded to incorporate human trafficking.

We are rolling out a Whistleblowing process to enable reporting any potential or actual wrongdoing that they consider to be negligent, improper or illegal, this will be available to all employees and external interested parties via our internal and external web pages.

Training currently exists for all procurement teams regarding actions and this is constantly evolving, we are developing the training for appropriate levels in the procurement and supply chain team as well as management. It will, amongst other topics cover modern slavery and human trafficking and includes information of where prominent risks lie and how individuals can identify and prevent this.

We believe that the risks of Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking within our own organisation and our supply chain are mitigated as a result of our strong sense of vision and purpose, cultural values and commitment to ethical behaviour along with our commitments for future actions, however we are not complacent and will continue to develop our practices and work with our suppliers and contractors to ensure they hold the same values as us.

Approval by the Directors

This statement is approved by the Lindström Oy Board of directors and signed on its behalf by
Juha Laurio
Chief Executive Officer, Lindström Group