Our commitment to Equalities, Wellbeing and Human Rights in relation to Sustainable Development Goals 3, 8, 10 and 11 against our organisational values.
With the withdrawal of childcare vouchers, we’ve set up our own arrangements to support holiday playscheme places for our staff’s children and provide paid family leave for those with caring responsibilities. Our benefits package treats all staff equally and ensures their financial planning needs are addressed, including dealing with the unexpected. Our leadership – and, currently, all our staff – are women, as are over 40 percent of our Board. The salary ratio between our highest and lowest paid staff is less than 5:1.
We moved quickly to anticipate potential wellbeing issues during Covid-19, doubling sick leave and family leave provisions for staff and playing a full role in a collaboration to raise public awareness of H&S needs for refuse and recycling workers. We’re using a healthcare plan to promote active and healthy lifestyles to prevent staff health problems and encourage and support volunteering as a recognised way to benefit emotional wellbeing. We promote the role of women in our sector by being active in industry fora.
We’ll be using our expertise to support community awareness and action on recycling and resources issues as part of our commitment to promoting wellbeing through volunteering. Our evidence-led approach is also applied to our remuneration and benefits packages where we benchmark against recognised good practice for SMEs. As an all women team gender pay gap reporting is difficult so we’re seeking external benchmarking partners in similar businesses.
We are committed to protecting and promoting human rights and have set out our approach in our Human Rights Statement. We believe passionately in equalities and safeguarding the rights of those who work for and with us. Our Staff Handbook sets out our wellbeing, whistleblowing, complaints and disciplinary policies clearly and in a way that everyone can understand. We offer paid internships and have a link with a local university.
Although as a micro-business we do not have statutory obligations regarding Modern Slavery, we are committed to its eradication as a moral issue. We will not tolerate Modern Slavery within our own employment practices or those of our suppliers. As a supplier and stakeholder in the Resources & Waste sector, which has had a poor record on Modern Slavery, all our staff are alert to signs of malpractice when visiting members and other stakeholders. Our Staff Handbook sets out clearly these requirements for all staff and our prohibition of child or forced labour.
We’ll be extending this work to our key partners as we develop a Supplier Code over the next 12 months and will be surveying suppliers so we can track the involvement of under-represented groups in owning and leading suppliers.
