Modern Slavery Act Statement
Introduction
Anker recognizes the Modern Slavery Act 2015 of UK (the“Act”) and has zero tolerance of
slavery servitude, and forced or compulsory labor, child labor and human trafficking both in
our own business and in our supply chain. We are committed to taking all necessary steps to
ensure the compliance with the Act and to minimize the risk of working with any organization
that engages in such practices.
Anker took no steps to ensure there is no modern slavery in their own business and their
supply chains due to the lack of awareness of the Act during the financial year of 2018.
However since March 2019, after receiving the very first notice from Home Office, Anker
immediately engaged a 3rdparty vendor in UK for the preparation of this statement and the
preparation of the initiatives and steps to be taken by Anker to comply with the Act.
This is our first statements and will show how we are starting to act on the issue and our
planned actions to investigate or collaborate with others to effect change.
Organization Structure and Supply Chain
Anker UK is a 100% subsidiary of Anker Innovations Limited in Hong Kong. Our business is
to sell and to market electronic products, such as chargers, electronic cleaners/vacuums,
earphones, and Bluetooth speakers etc.. Anker, as a group with a global annual turnover of
$780million, has over 1,395 employees worldwide and extends its operations in the Asia, US,
Middle East and Europe.
Our supply chain is mainly in mainland China and focused on electronics manufacturing
services, as such it has been identified as an area of risk.
Modern Slavery Act Working Group and Initiatives
In May 2019, Anker established our own Modern Slavery Act working group consisting of the
representatives of Legal & Compliance,Human Resources; Supply Chain and Corporate
Finance. The working group’s responsibilities include:
Updating the relevant policies of Anker to make sure they comply with the Act.
Accessing and identifying risks, within Anker group and Anker’s supply
chain, of non-compliance with the Act, and the follow-up actions or steps to be
taken by Anker to combat the non-compliance of the Act.
· Receiving information related to the Act, including the information released by
the UK Home Office.
· Delivering training to staff.
.Ensuring the message of anti-slavery be delivered to the suppliers.
. Arranging for the preparation and publication of the annual statement within the
six months after the financial year end.
Conducting anti-slavery investigations and due diligence within Anker group on
yearly basis.
Relevant Policies
Anker has been in the process to amend its Employee Code of Conduct and the following
statement will be added to it: “Anker has zero tolerance of slavery servitude, and forced or
compulsory labour, child labor and human trafficking both in our business.”The Code of
Conduct encourages Anker’s employees to report any concerns related to the activities of
Anker or its supply chains. To make it easy for Anker employees to make disclosures, we
encourage them to use the email of the Human Resources Department for confidential
disclosure and reporting.
Anker has been in the process to update its procurement policies in order to ensure that its
suppliers treat workers with dignity and respect, and provide safe working conditions where
necessary. Serious violations of the Anker’s procurement policies will lead to the termination
of the business relationship.
Due diligence
Anker undertakes due diligence when considering taking on new suppliers, and regularly
reviews its existing suppliers. Anker has been working on its suppliers due diligence process
which will include:
· conducting supplier audits or assessments through Anker’s own staff or third
party auditor, which have a greater degree of focus on slavery and human
trafficking where general risks are identified; and
invoking sanctions against suppliers that fail to improve their performance in line
with an action plan or seriously violate our procurement policies, including the
termination of the business relationship.
Performance indicators
Anker has reviewed its key performance indicators (KPIs). As a result, the organization is:
requiring all staff to have completed training on ethics, which modern slavery is
part of. In this training, we encourage all employees to use the whistleblower
hotline to report all concerns regarding the workplace and supply chains.
·reviewing and evaluating the current suppliers via due diligence questionnaires
to ensure the compliance with the Act.