Modern Slavery Statement
Abacus is committed to tackling modern slavery and believes that it can play a small part by understanding modern-day slavery risks and ensuring that there is no modern-day slavery in our business and supply chain. We take a zero-tolerance approach to modern day slavery in our business.
Although Abacus is not required to publish a modern-day slavery statement, we believe that by raising awareness in our own organisation – through both staff and suppliers – we can help to reduce the widespread potential for modern slavery.
What is modern-day slavery?
Modern slavery is a crime and a violation of fundamental human rights. It takes various forms, such as slavery, servitude, forced and compulsory labour and human trafficking, all of which have in common the deprivation of a person’s liberty by another in order to exploit them for personal or commercial gain. We have a zero-tolerance approach to modern slavery and we are committed to acting ethically and with integrity in all our business dealings and relationships and to implementing and enforcing effective systems and controls to ensure modern slavery is not taking place anywhere in our own business or in any of our supply chains.
Abacus’ modern-day slavery policy applies to all persons working for us or on our behalf in any capacity, including employees at all levels, directors, officers, agency workers, apprentices, contractors, external consultants and business partners.
Organisational structure and supply chains
Abacus operates solely from the UK, where all its staff are based, and therefore has tight control over the recruitment and training of all staff. All new joiners are required to provide passports and, if necessary, proof of their validity to work in the UK.
Abacus has a limited supply chain: third parties are used to provide hosting services, based in the UK and US. Most of what we sell to our clients is based on development work that we have undertaken in-house by our staff, supported and sold by the UK teams.
Risk assessment
Abacus has undertaken a risk assessment to identify areas which may be at a higher risk for modern slavery. Under this, we have identified the following factors which we believe make the risk of modern slavery in our organisation or supply chain very low.
- Staff knowledge and resource: our staff are highly skilled in the fields of software development, product knowledge and project management and we only recruit staff who have the skillsets which match our requirements. All staff are paid considerably above the minimum wage requirement, and we actively invest in training and developing our staff, including using apprentices where possible.
- Geographical markets: we operate out of the UK and most of our customers are UK-based, where there is greater legislation and awareness of the risks of modern slavery and human trafficking.
- Activities: Abacus operates in markets where the prevalence of modern slavery is lower risk, due to the high level of technical skill and knowledge required by people associated with our products and services.
- Supplier due diligence:
- Compliance: we take compliance with Data Protection, Health & Safety and standards very seriously, as evidenced by our Data Compliance and ISO 27001, with requirements and training routinely communicated to staff.
Due diligence
As a result of the size and nature of our business, we do not tend to enter into any procurement contracts with third parties.
Responsibility
Whistleblowing: if a staff member believes that Abacus or one of its suppliers is engaging in modern-day slavery then they should raise this with the Managing Director as soon as they are aware and all issues raised will be thoroughly investigated and the relevant authorities notified. There would be no recourse to the whistleblower.
We reserve the right to terminate our contract without notice and notify the authorities of any of our suppliers is found to be in breach of modern slavery laws.
