Our Human Rights Policy describes our commitment to create an inclusive working environment within which everyone is treated with dignity and respect. Our policy is guided by the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.
The purpose of our policy is to clearly set out the basic human rights standards that we expect people working for us or on our behalf to follow.
Our policy also outlines how our values guide our decision-making and shape our culture.
Our Oxford Instruments Company Values are:
| Inclusive | We listen and engage with customers, colleagues, shareholders, and partners for mutual success |
| Trusted | We build long-term relationships based on trust, integrity and respect |
| Innovative & Progressive | We bring skill, experience and openness to new ideas to address the needs of the 21st Century |
| Wholehearted | We approach what we do with passion, with care and with pace |
1. Applicability
This policy applies to everyone working for us or on our behalf in any capacity, including employees at all levels, directors, officers, agency workers, seconded workers, volunteers, interns and our business partners, contractors, consultants, suppliers, distributors, agents and any other third party representatives. Where we do not have direct control over the activities of those with whom we work, we encourage them to adopt the same or similar standards to those contained within our policy and we expect our suppliers to hold their own suppliers to the same or similar standards.
2. Responsibility
Our policy is fully supported by our Main Board. All members of the Group’s Management Board take overall responsibility for ensuring compliance with our legal and ethical obligations and will implement our policy within their part of the Group. Management at all levels are responsible for ensuring those reporting to them understand and comply with our policy.
1. The Working Environment
We are committed to maintaining a working environment that is free from any form of harassment, abuse, bullying or victimisation. We expect all employees to be treated with respect, dignity and thoughtfulness.
We value diversity and recognise individual skills, experience and talents. With regard to all aspects of employment, including recruitment, training and development, promotion, career management and exit, we do not discriminate on the basis of gender, marital status, sexual orientation or preference, colour, race, nationality, religious belief, ethnic origin, disability, age, background, unrelated criminal convictions or any other status protected by applicable law.
We provide competitive remuneration referenced against relevant external data and all employees receive wages and benefits that meet and generally exceed the legally required minimum.
We engage with employees through a range of communication methods. Direct feedback from employees is encouraged through employee surveys, focus groups and forums, but we also respect the rights of employees to join a trade union in line with local laws and practices if they so wish. We respect and adhere to all relevant local employment laws.
2. Anti-slavery and Human Trafficking
We have a zero-tolerance approach to slavery, servitude, forced, bonded and compulsory labour and human trafficking, all forms of modern slavery. We make our employees aware of our approach and provide training on our anti-slavery requirements, where relevant. We are committed to acting ethically and with integrity and transparency in all our business dealings and to putting in place effective systems and controls to ensure there is no modern slavery taking place anywhere in our own business or in any of our supply chains. This is consistent with our disclosure obligations under relevant local laws, such as the Modern Slavery Act 2015, UK.
We recognise that our employees may wish to leave us to pursue their career and personal goals and we respect their right to do so. We only employ people at or above the legal minimum age and seek to work directly with suppliers that also share this approach.
3. Health and Safety
Our duty of care to our people extends to our commitment to providing working conditions that are safe and secure. We continually strive to improve our health & safety (H&S) performance and environmental practices and welcome suggested improvements. Our H&S objectives are set, and reviewed, by our Main Board on a regular basis.
You are encouraged to raise concerns about any issue or suspicion of any violation of human rights in any parts of our business or supply chains of any supplier tier at the earliest possible stage. We encourage openness and will support you if you raise genuine concerns in good faith under our policy, even if they turn out to be mistaken. If you are unsure, raise your concern.
If you believe or suspect a breach of our policy has occurred or that it may occur, please notify by:
Where appropriate, and with the welfare and safety of local workers as a priority, we will give support and guidance to our suppliers to help them address any of the issues described in our policy in their own business and supply chains.
We welcome your comments on our policy and encourage you to ask questions and suggest ways in which it might be improved. You can contact the Oxford Instruments Compliance team at compliance@oxinst.com.
Note: This policy does not form part of any employee's contract of employment and we may amend it at any time.
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