Today the Shiva Foundation is launching the Stop Slavery Blueprint and free online toolkit for the hotel industry. The toolkit, which includes guidance, templates and training, provides practical measures to address some of the main risk areas regarding modern slavery in the industry. This toolkit is launched following wide-ranging insights from across the sector.
The Blueprint is being unveiled today at the London event: ‘Business and Modern Slavery: Turning Principles into Practice.’ The event brings together key representatives from business and civil society and will showcase practical tools to address some of the main risk areas regarding modern slavery in the hotel sector, including facilities, employment practices and supply chains. Attendees will also hear from an expert panel, including representatives from the International Tourism Partnership and the Gangmasters & Labour Abuse Authority (GLAA), about the wider role businesses can play in the fight against modern slavery, with a focus on shifting from principles to practice.
The Stop Slavery Blueprint covers supplier engagement, signs to spot, and reporting protocols and is based on learnings over the past two years working closely with a range of key stakeholders within the hotel industry and the anti-trafficking space. This launch comes after a pilot with Shiva Hotels who have embedded the Blueprint across their properties. Since its implementation, a number of incidents have been reported and swiftly dealt with through collaboration with the police and internal contacts.
It is estimated that there are 136,000 victims of modern slavery in the UK. COMBAT, a European Commission funded project, found that annually 93,000 people were sexually exploited and another 4,500 were exploited for labour in European hotels.
Hotel and hospitality organisations are particularly at risk because of high turnover of staff and goods, which usually results in complex, multi-layered processes, and the outsourcing of recruitment to third party agencies. All of this means transparency is often limited.
Based on its experience trailing the Blueprint and coordinating the Stop Slavery Hotel Industry Network, which is made up of key players within the industry, Shiva Foundation is recommending greater collaboration. It is encouraging hotels and hospitality organisations to adopt practical guidelines on transparency and reporting and to work with the industry, victim service providers and law enforcement to strengthen the response to modern slavery.
Visit the Shiva Foundation website to access the Stop Slavery Blueprint, or get in touch with us if you would like any further support.
