We are committed to playing our part to uphold and protect human rights in our businesses and across our supply chain globally.

We obey the laws, rules and regulations of every country in which we operate and implement the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, the UN Declaration of Human Rights and the International Labour Organization's Fundamental Conventions within our businesses and our supply chain.

These cover:

• Freedom of association
• The abolition of forced labour
• Equality and the elimination of child labour

For Royal Mail, these are set out in the Supplier Code of Conduct, a binding document as part of the relationship with suppliers. GLS operates a mandatory business partner approval process and its Supplier Code of Conduct, based on the UN Global Compact Principles framework, sets out the standards expected of suppliers. GLS’ standard due diligence approach for mergers and acquisitions transactions includes employment and subcontractor due diligence, using a risk-based approach, which would identify potential human rights violations as part of this process. Read more about our sustainable procurement practices here.

Royal Mail provides highly competitive employment terms and conditions in our industry in the UK. In 2023-24, our postie’s basic pay was 18-28% higher than the UK National Living Wage (NLW) for the same period. All temporary workers receive pay in line with the NLW, with the majority receiving hourly pay above the voluntary Real Living Wage set by the Living Wage Foundation at national level.

Combating modern slavery at Royal Mail

We are committed to embedding high standards of social, ethical and environmental conduct across our supply chains and to ensuring that modern slavery and human rights abuse, including trafficking, are not taking place in our business or supply chains. Our IDS Modern Slavery Statement is available here. Our risk identification and assessment processes cover potential human rights issues including forced labour (including child labour), human trafficking, freedom of association and the right to collective bargaining, equal remuneration and discrimination. Specific vulnerable groups covered include our own employees, third-party employees, migrant workers and children.

For more detail on how Royal Mail have been raising awareness on modern slavery in 2023-24, please see our 2023-24 ESG report here.

Our IDS ESG Policy outlines our commitment to responsible business conduct, and details our support of the UN Global Compact, the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Labour Organization’s Fundamental Conventions. Our policy can be found here.

We have specific expectations for supplier behaviour in certain fields. For example, we require our recruitment contracts to commit to our recruitment standards. The standards ensure that workers are not charged unnecessary fees, workers’ identification documents are not held by anyone, even if done so voluntarily, and that resignation by workers is voluntary and without the threat of punishment. We require that recruitment agents also adhere to applicable vetting standards for the workers they supply to work at Royal Mail sites or to access our systems, including proof of right to work, proof of appropriate training, and various security checks.

We will continue to focus on assessing supply chain risks in relation to modern slavery and human trafficking and are exploring options for certification of third-party suppliers for correct employment standards and signposting them to modern day slavery training materials. We believe that only if the business community works together as one, can we effectively raise awareness and combat modern slavery and human trafficking and associated risks. Through our risk management systems and due diligence processes at GLS we also assess human rights risk arising from new business relations such as mergers or acquisitions to ensure we identify, prevent and mitigate against any adverse impacts related to human rights.

Our most recent Modern Slavery statement can be found here.