We are the best, most respected company in our industry. And we continue to work hard to create the opportunity of a better future for our team members.

We are also committed to driving the highest possible standards of safety and ethics for our people and operations.

Modern slavery

We have a strong and robust Modern Slavery Policy and are working towards being best practice in our processes and procedures. We work in partnership with our labour providers, the GLAA (Gangmaster and Labour Abuse Authority), UK and Welsh Governments and Anti-Slavery Commissioners, to drive up standards and rid the food supply chain of this crime and support 

Modern slavery is where one person, or persons control another or a group of people by exploiting a vulnerability. It is often linked with human trafficking, where a person is forced into a service against their will – usually forced work or prostitution. The control can be physical, financial or psychological.

View our latest MS Report

Community

We are actively engaged in our communities and share responsibility for their ongoing development, through volunteerism, donation, and sponsorship opportunities.

And our belief in the right collaboration includes strong community partnerships in every region we work in. 

Health and Safety

Safety at Pilgrim’s UK is a condition, not a priority. Safe people, safe products and healthy attitudes are ingrained in our view of sustainability. We have improved our health and safety performance year-on-year and our positive progress has accelerated since we re-defined health and safety as a condition.

Social integration

We aim to provide as much opportunity for all sectors of society through Movement to Work and the Bright Futures programme, which we are a founder board member of. This aims to close the loop for Modern Slavery victims by offering them a paid work placement and the possibility of a permanent role with a non-competitive interview.

Mental Health

Our strong commitment to mental health and wellbeing for every team member includes ongoing, data-lead communication with our people and a wellbeing strategy that will ensure re our people are the happiest and healthiest at work.

Working environment

We are committed to providing safe work environments within our business and supply chains. We invest and resource in our teams, including ongoing career development and training, to ensure we have the best people to deliver our goals.

Responsible sourcing

We are committed to a fully transparent, ethical supply chain and a responsible sourcing policy. All our supply partners are subject to our Supply Chain Code of Conduct to ensure robust standards across the chain. 

Human Rights

Human rights are integral to all that we do as a business. Our first human rights risk assessment is underway and will be published on our website when completed. We are committed to the highest levels of transparency and our work with FNET (Food Network for Ethical Trade) drives developments in our business and supply chain.

Labour rights

We believe passionately in our responsibilities as an employer, as well as a strong, transparent system for safeguarding employee rights. It is the only way to achieve our goal of being the best company in our industry, creating a better future for all our team members in our business and our wider supply chain.

Modern Slavery Continued

Why is it a problem?

Like many food productions companies, we employ a mix of our own workforce, who are directly employed and agency staff who are employed by the agency but work on our site. 

We operate across 15 sites in the UK with 5,889 permanent employees with up to an additional 2,100 additional agency workers at peak periods.

We class agencies as high risk as we do not have direct control over every single agency site in the UK, and how they operate on a day to day basis. Unlike our own 15 sites.

What do we do about it?

Policies and Procedure – Pilgrims Ltd 

Modern Slavery Policy

Ethical and Human Rights Policy 

We have strong policies and procedures in place for our own sites around finding issues of Modern Slavery and how we deal with them. 

GLAA – (Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority)

Their role is to protect vulnerable and exploited workers. Through the intelligence they receive from our inspections, the public, businesses and other government departments, they investigate reports of worker exploitation and illegal activity such as human trafficking, forced labour and illegal labour     provision.

They all aspects of labour exploitation in England and Wales but we also work with partner organisations such as the police, the National Crime Agency and other government law enforcement agencies to target, dismantle and disrupt serious and organised crime across the UK.

Our licensing scheme regulates businesses and labour agencies, such as Staffline, who provide workers into the food industry to make sure they meet the employment standards required by law.

Stronger Together

Stronger Together is a multi-stakeholder business-led initiative that aims to reduce modern slavery particularly forced labour, labour trafficking and other hidden third party exploitation of workers. It provides guidance, training, resources and a network for employers, labour providers, workers and their representatives to work together to reduce exploitation

ALP (Association of Labour Providers)

The ALP was established in 2004 at the instigation of the UK government, ALP is a specialist trade association, of which Pilgrims in an active associate member, which promotes responsible recruitment and good practice for organisations that supply the workforce to the food processing, agricultural and wider consumer goods supply chain.

The ALP and its members work to influence government, regulatory policy and provides a range of useful information and services to its members.

Bright Future

Bright Future is a unique collaboration between business and the charity sector. It has recently been established as a stand alone co-operative. Pilgrims is a founding member of this and has been involved since 2017. This has helped Pilgrims to ensure that we have more than doubled the number of modern slavery survivors we have helped into permanent employment over the past 12 months 

Responsible Recruitment Toolkit

The Responsible Recruitment Toolkit (RRT) enables labour providers, employers and brands to raise the standard of recruitment in their business and global supply chains.

RRT is an online toolkit that provides comprehensive and practical step by step guidance, tools and resources to support businesses to embed responsible recruitment practices, within their business and supply chain. Pilgrims is a “Plus” member, as we are supported by our customers, such as Waitrose and Co-Op, to drive change in this area through all our wider supply chains

Support for Victims

Pilgrims is proud to support victims of Modern Slavery into permanent employment. We have strong policies and procedures in place to ensure that the focus is on the needs of the victim.

Hope for Justice

Hope for Justice is a charity that exists and is focussed to bring an end to modern slavery by preventing exploitation, rescuing victims, restoring lives and reforming society

Slave Free Alliance

Slave-Free Alliance is a social enterprise and membership initiative launched by anti-slavery charity Hope for Justice.

Membership includes global multinationals, household names like Aviva, Dixons Carphone, Clarks and Arriva, as well as small to medium enterprises (SMEs) with only a few employees. They all share a common goal: working towards a slave-free supply chain.

Pilgrims is proud the be the first meat company in the UK to sign up to support this unique partnership. 

Internal Training

We undertake extensive training to help equip all our colleagues to be able to “Spot the Signs” and to raise awareness within Pilgrims and our supply chains. 

Induction Training

As part of our standard induction for all workers on our sites, we promote Stronger Together and show videos to begin to raise awareness amongst all our colleagues.

Stronger Together 

Pilgrims has developed our own bespoke, online training package for anyone within the business who manages any number of people. This is compulsory training and is regularly refreshed and updated. Click here to view their website.

Slave Free Alliance 

Pilgrims is proud to be working with Slave-Free Alliance to develop awareness raising training and support our agricultural supply chain, to know what to do should they “Spot The Signs”, of Modern Slavery in their farms. Click here to view their website.