Modern Slavery Act Statement 2024
At Z Hotels we are committed to supporting human rights and take seriously our responsibilities under the Modern Slavery Act 2015. We have a zero-tolerance approach to slavery and human trafficking and are committed to acting ethically and with integrity in all our business dealings and relationships. We are equally committed to understanding the risks, implementing, and enforcing effective systems and controls so that we can work towards ensuring that there is no modern slavery in our business or supply chains
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 to exploit them for personal or commercial gain.
We are committed to ensuring there is transparency in our own business and in our approach to tackling modern slavery throughout our supply chains, consistent with our disclosure obligations under the Modern Slavery Act 2015.
Company's structure
Z Hotels is a hospitality company with a portfolio of 14 hotels across the UK with 1711 rooms supported by more than 400 team members. The hotels are either owned, leased or run under management contract and offer affordable compact luxury.
Our supply chains
We have long-standing relationships with many of our suppliers, which fall into two broad groups – hotel suppliers and support suppliers.
Hotel suppliers provide all goods and services used in the running of a hotel from food and beverage, linen and cleaning supplies to fixtures, fittings, equipment, and maintenance services. Our support suppliers provide items such as office supplies, IT support and systems, professional and consultancy services. We also work with employment agencies who supply a limited number of people to work in our support team and hotels.
Procurement for suppliers is managed by relationship owners within our support office team, they choose our suppliers carefully seeking out ethical and responsible practises.
Our initiatives and policies on anti-slavery and human trafficking
Z Hotels is committed to acting ethically and with integrity in all its business relationships and to implementing and enforcing effective systems and controls to ensure slavery and human trafficking is not taking place anywhere in our supply chains.
Our commitment to social responsibility is reflected in our team member training programmes and company policies and we expect the same high standards from our suppliers.
We encourage our team members to report any ethical concerns, and our Whistleblowing Policy (which includes a specific section on modern slavery) and use of a third-party company to enable confidential whistleblowing disclosures, is intended to make this simple for all team members. We aim to ensure that appropriate protections are in place for any team member who raises a concern, without fear of reprisal.
We implement ‘right-to-work’ checks on all new team members, undertake regular checks on shift-patterns and the hours worked by our colleagues and understand the importance of focusing on having a culture of engaging in all activities with respect and fair treatment of others.
We have several policies related to the prevention of modern slavery including Anti-Bribery Policy, Whistleblowing Policy and Equal Opportunities Policy.
Due diligence processes for slavery and human trafficking
We check supply chains to ensure the potential for slavery and human trafficking is significantly reduced. We make clear to companies we do business with that we are not prepared to accept any form of exploitation.
Training
To ensure a high level of understanding of the risks of modern slavery and human trafficking in our supply chains and our business, an overview is delivered during the onboarding process for our teams and annually thereafter.
Key performance indicators
We continue to focus on the assessment of our supply chain and high-risk areas as well as on ensuring that we do not have any modern slavery in our own business. There is no specific KPI reporting.
Further steps.
Whilst having policies and processes in place to combat slavery and human trafficking, we recognise this is an area which requires continual monitoring and improvement. On an ongoing basis we will:
- continue to apply good practice in assessing new suppliers as well as reviewing existing relationships on contract renewal
- keep training under review to ensure it remains appropriate
- consider any relevant and appropriate reporting on key performance indicators
At Z Hotels we firmly believe in being a responsible business and continuing to develop our approach to combating modern slavery forms a key part of this.
This statement is made pursuant to section 54(1) of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 and constitutes our slavery and human trafficking statement for the financial year ending March 2023.
This statement is approved by Z Hotels board of directors, who will review and update it annually.