Supplier Code of Conduct

Purpose

At Modern Milkman we are passionate about reducing plastic waste and doing our bit for the environment and communities we work in. We are committed to doing the right thing and treating everyone in our supply chain fairly. To make sure we do this, we have created a Code of Conduct (the “Code”) so that we can be clear about what you can expect from working with us and what we can expect from you as a supplier to our business. The Code sets the standards by which we aim to build long term partnerships with our suppliers and carry out business through transparent and fair means.
Definitions

In this Code:
Supplier means a company, partnership or individual that provides goods or services to Modern Milkman.
worker means any individual whom the Supplier employs, hires or engages, or otherwise uses to conduct its business.
Representative means the Supplier’s suppliers, vendors, agents, farms and subcontractors who are involved in Modern Milkman’s supply chain.
Compliance with the Code

Modern Milkman’s Suppliers are obligated, in all of their activities, to operate in full compliance with the laws, rules and regulations of the countries in which they operate. Our Code goes further and is based on International Labour Organization (ILO) standards and internationally accepted good labour practices.Compliance with the code is expected from all Suppliers and Representatives. Standards equally apply to all workers (as defined), including permanent, temporary, and agency workers, as well as piece-rate, salaried, hourly paid, legal young workers (minors), part time, night and migrant workers. We reserve the right to verify this through audits, information requests or visits as required.
1. It will comply with the requirements in this Code.
2. It has appropriate systems in place to ensure continuous compliance and to demonstrate such compliance.
3. Any breach of this Code will allow Modern Milkman to terminate its relationship with the Supplier with immediate effect on notice.
The code
1. Honesty and Transparency
  Suppliers shall be fully transparent when submitting to onsite assessments as well as maintain all accurate documentation necessary for demonstrating compliance with the Code. This includes full access to production facilities, staff records and staff for confidential interviews.
2. Compliance with Laws, Regulations, and Published Standards
  Suppliers shall, in addition to complying with the standards set out in this Code, comply with all applicable laws, codes, or regulations of the countries, states, and localities in which they or their Representatives operate. This includes, but is not limited to, laws and regulations relating to environmental, occupational health and safety, and labour practices.
3. Competing standards shall be addressed as follows:
  1. If there is a conflict between any applicable laws or regulations, the provisions of an agreement with Modern Milkman and the provisions of this Code, the Supplier shall meet the most stringent standard.
  2. If there is a conflict between the provisions of an agreement with Modern Milkman and the provisions of this Code, the Supplier shall meet the more stringent.
4. Human rights
  The Supplier shall comply with all internationally recognised human rights understood, at a minimum, as those expressed in the International Bill of Human Rights and the principles concerning fundamental rights set out in the ILO’s Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work from time to time in force.
5. No Child Labour
  Suppliers shall not support, engage or require the use of child labour (being any person under the age of 15, or under the age for completing compulsory education, or under the minimum age for employment in the country, whichever is greatest). Suppliers should have in place an appropriate mechanism to verify the age of workers. Children and young persons under the age of 18 shall not be employed at night or in hazardous conditions. The policies and procedures shall conform to the relevant ILO policies.
6. Employment is freely chosen
  Suppliers shall not support, engage or require the use of forced, bonded, exploitative, indentured or involuntary prison labour. There shall be no unreasonable restrictions on workers’ freedom of movement on Supplier’s premises, in addition to unreasonable restrictions on entering or exiting Supplier’s facilities. Suppliers must not hold, destroy or confiscate identity documents of workers.Workers must not be required to lodge deposits on commencement of employment. Workers must be free to leave their employer after reasonable notice.
7. Freedom of association and employee representation
  Suppliers shall respect, and shall not interfere with, the rights of employees to decide whether to lawfully associate with groups of their choice, including the right to join or form an association of their choosing (such as workers council, union, or workers association). Where law restricts the right to freedom of association and collective bargaining, the employer should facilitate, and not hinder, the development of parallel means for independent and free association and bargaining. Representatives must not be discriminated against and have access to carry out their representative function in the workplace.
8. No Discrimination
  Suppliers shall not discriminate against any worker based on gender, race, caste, colour, national origin, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, ethnicity, disability, pregnancy status, religion, political affiliation, union membership, marital status or any other characteristic other than the worker’s ability to perform the job (subject to any accommodations required or permitted by law) in its hiring and employment practices such as advancement or promotions, rewards, access to training, job assignments, compensation, benefits, discipline, termination and retirement. Supplier’s workplace should be free of harassment and unlawful discrimination. Supplier shall make reasonable accommodation for religious practices. Supplier shall not subject staff to medical tests, or physical exams that could be used in a discriminatory way.
9. Wages and benefits of employment
  The Supplier must compensate all workers with wages, including overtime premiums, and benefits for a standard working week that at a minimum meet the higher of:
  1. the minimum wage and benefits established by applicable law;
  2. collective agreements;
  3. industry benchmark standards; and
  4. any amount sufficient to cover both basic living requirements and some discretionary income.
  All workers should be provided with written and understandable information about their employment conditions and wages before employment and provided with wage slips for each period they are paid. Deductions from wages as a disciplinary measure is not permitted, except those required by law. Any such deductions must not be taken without the expressed permission of the worker concerned. Suppliers must not require workers to pay any agent’s recruitment fees or other fees related to their employment.
10. Hours of work and regular engagement
  Accurate attendance, payroll and other relevant records shall be maintained. Suppliers must commit to working in compliance with UK employment laws, or the comparative laws of another jurisdiction provided they offer no less protection to individual workers, as an absolute minimum standard. Overtime must be voluntary, and all workers should not work at least one day in every seven. Obligations to workers under applicable laws and regulations must not be avoided through the improper or inappropriate use of home working schemes, subcontracting or apprenticeships where there is no intent to provide a regular engagement or employment. Suppliers shall use all reasonable endeavours to ensure that their legal relationship with all workers is correctly characterised (for example, in the UK, as an ‘employee’, ‘worker’ or ‘self-employed’) and all related benefits are provided and paid as required by law. All workers must be provided with a contract setting out at least the legally required particulars of their engagement.
11. Harassment or Abuse
  Suppliers shall treat each worker with dignity and respect. Suppliers shall be committed to a workplace free of harassment. Suppliers shall not threaten workers with or subject them to harsh or inhumane treatment, including sexual harassment, sexual abuse, corporal punishment, mental coercion, physical coercion, or verbal abuse.
12. Health and safety
  Suppliers shall comply with applicable health and safety laws and any other relevant laws where it operates and provide a safe, healthy and sanitary working environment in order to prevent accidents and injury to health arising out of, linked with, or occurring in the course of work or as a result of the operation of the Supplier. Suppliers shall regularly assess the workplace for hazards and implement appropriate safety systems, controls and training related to: fires, emergencies, machines, chemicals, electrical, hygiene, first aid, food preparation and consumption, housing, lighting, ventilation, child care, evacuation, personal protective equipment (PPE) and ergonomics. Where such hazards cannot be adequately prevented or controlled, the Supplier shall provide workers with appropriate personal protective equipment to protect against hazards typically encountered in that scope of work. Where housing is provided appropriate safety systems shall also be implemented related to electrical and fire safety, evacuation, hygiene, ventilation and privacy.Written policies and practices must be in place and made available to minimise on-the-job accidents and injuries and policies and accident reports must be made available for inspection. Supplier should have in place systems to take corrective action after any accidents and injuries, and to facilitate affected workers return to work.
13. Whistleblowing
  We require our Suppliers to provide an internal mechanism for confidentially reporting, investigating and remedying any wrongdoing in the workplace, and to ensure that whistle blowers do not suffer any detrimental treatment as a result of raising a protected disclosure. If you would like support in setting up a whistleblowing policy and system, please get in touch to see how we can help. We also recommend two whistleblowing charities, Protect and WhistleblowersUK, who can provide support for employees and advice to businesses.
14. Environmental compliance
  We take the environmental impact of our operations very seriously, and work hard to minimise our impacts as far as possible. As a minimum, the Supplier shall ensure that its operations comply with applicable environmental laws, including laws and international treaties relating to (but not limited to) waste disposal, emissions, discharges and the handling of hazardous and toxic chemicals. The Supplier shall ensure the goods it manufactures (including the inputs and components that it incorporates into its goods) comply with all applicable environmental laws and treaties. The Supplier shall ensure that it will only use packaging materials that comply with all applicable environmental laws and treaties.All hazardous and non-hazardous materials and chemical emissions must be tracked throughout the supply chain. How waste (including wastewater) and chemicals are disposed of must be documented and reports must be available for inspection. In addition, Suppliers should use all reasonable endeavours to continually review and improve their environmental performance and reduce the negative environmental impact of their activities, including by:
  1. minimising or eliminating emissions and discharges of pollutants and waste (solids, gases and liquids) and implement systems to prevent and mitigate accidental spills and releases to the environment;
  2. minimising the consumption of energy and the use of natural resources, promoting sustainable land management practices to prevent soil degradation, and prioritising reuse and recycling where possible to avoid wherever possible waste to landfill and single use plastic usage;
  3. regularly reviewing its energy consumption and GHG emissions and in accordance with industry best practice, taking all reasonable steps to reduce its GHG Emissions; and measuring, managing, and reporting to us at least once each year on its GHG Emissions in accordance with The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s 2006 IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories, Volume 4: Agriculture, Forestry and Other Land Use (IPCC 2006) as refined in 2019 and as amended from time to time.
  For the purpose of this section 4.13:GHG Emissions means emissions of GHGs from all sources, categorised as scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions by The Greenhouse Gas Protocol: A Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard, Revised Edition 2015 as updated from time to time; and Greenhouse Gases (GHGs) means the natural and anthropogenic gases which trap thermal radiation in the earth’s atmosphere and are specified in Annex A to the Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, as may be amended from time to time, each expressed as a total in units of Carbon Dioxide Equivalent (CO2e).
15. Anti-Slavery and Trafficking
  Modern Milkman has a zero tolerance approach to any form of modern slavery. Modern slavery includes, but is not limited to, slavery, servitude, human trafficking and forced labour. We are committed to acting ethically and with integrity and transparency in all business dealings and to putting effective systems and controls in place to safeguard against any form of modern slavery taking place within the business or our supply chain. All Suppliers shall not support, engage or require modern slavery and have a responsibility to ensure that workers are not being exploited, that they are safe and that relevant employment, health and safety, and human rights laws and standards are being adhered to, including freedom of movement and communication. We require our Suppliers to operate in accordance with all laws and Governmental guidance relevant to modern slavery, whether they are compliance obliged or not, and we reserve the right to terminate our engagement of Suppliers who fail to do so immediately on notice.
16. Bribery and corruption
  The Supplier shall comply with all applicable laws, statutes, codes and regulations relating to the prevention of bribery and corruption. To that end, the Supplier shall not accept, offer, promise, pay, permit or authorise:
  1. bribes, facilitation payments, kickbacks or illegal political contributions;
  2. money, goods, services, entertainment, employment, contracts or other things of value, in order to obtain or retain improper advantage; or
  3. any other unlawful or improper payments or benefits.
17. Unfair business practices
  The Supplier shall comply with all applicable competition laws (including, but not limited to, the Competition Act 1998), including but not limited to those relating to teaming and information sharing with competitors, price fixing and rigging bids.
18. Animal Welfare
  Suppliers shall respect and commit to promoting ethical animal welfare practices with a focus on the five freedoms. We believe that all such animals, while taking into account their species’ needs, should benefit from freedom from thirst, discomfort, pain, injury or disease, fear and distress and have the freedom to behave naturally.
19. Procuring and managing Representatives
  With regard to prospective Representatives, the Supplier shall use all reasonable endeavours to carry out appropriate due diligence on prospective Representatives that will form part of Modern Milkman’s upstream supply chain. At a minimum, the due diligence must include the following:
  1. investigations into prospective Representatives’ stance, public statements and actions on human rights, treatment of workers, bribery, ethical behaviour and environmental outlook;
  2. risk assessments for countries from which materials, components or finished goods are sourced; and
  3. the prospective Representative’s ability to meet the requirements and principles that are covered in this Code.
  In its dealings with Representatives, the Supplier shall:
  1. ensure that agreements with Representatives include provisions that require the Representatives to comply with applicable provisions of this Code, having due regard to the risk profile of the transaction, the Representative’s ability to comply with those provisions and the consequences where the Representative fails to meet those requirements;
  2. ensure that it has measures to monitor that those Representatives are complying with those compliance-related provisions and that it has systems in place to address any deficiencies or breaches of those requirements; and
  3. pay its Representatives promptly, with the maximum payment period being 30 days.
  When assessing the Supplier’s performance against the requirements set out in this section 4.18 of the Code, Modern Milkman shall have due regard to the risk profile of the transaction, the Supplier’s ability to comply with the requirements and the consequences where the Supplier fails to meet those requirements.
20. Training
  The Supplier shall implement a system of training for its workers to ensure that they are aware of the requirements of this Code. The Supplier shall keep a record of all training offered and completed by its workers and shall make a copy of such record available to Modern Milkman on request.
21. Continuous Improvement All Suppliers shall take necessary corrective actions to promptly remediate any noncompliance and strive for long term continuous improvement. Modern Milkman reserves the right to terminate business relationships with any Supplier who is unwilling or ultimately unable to comply with the Code.
22. Community
  Modern Milkman encourages and aligns with Suppliers who are engaged in their communities in promoting social and environmental development.
What you can expect from us

At Modern Milkman, we aim to build a long-term relationships with our Suppliers, enabling us to enjoy shared prosperity in the future. So as a Supplier to Modern Milkman, alongside our commitment that in all dealings with your representatives we will be respectful and honest, you can expect the following:
1. Feedback and grievance
  Modern Milkman will provide timely feedback, when there are any quality, logistics or other problems with the products or service supplied. That said, we recognise feedback is a two way street, therefore we welcome any feedback on operational or logistical issues. Please contact [email protected] if you would like to raise any issues.For more serious grievances about our actions or approach to working with our Suppliers, please contact Kenzo Onumonu (Legal Director).
Working together for continuous improvement
1. Product development and business supportIn building long-term relationships with our Suppliers, we are able to, where resources and business priorities allow, support Suppliers in product development, packaging development, process improvement etc. If this is something we may be able to help you on, please contact Simon Mellin.
2. Environmental impactAs a young business ourselves, we recognise we have work to do to measure and reduce our environmental impact and a major part of that is working collaboratively with our Suppliers to reduce the impact of our supply chain. We assess our Suppliers against a number of criteria, environmental being one of these. Please make sure you update us on your progress and developments so we can accurately record these.
3. Certifying compliance and auditThe Supplier shall provide written confirmation to Modern Milkman at least once per year that:
  1. it has appropriate systems in place to monitor its compliance with this Code; and
  2. it is able to comply with this Code for the duration of its relationship with Modern Milkman.
  The form of confirmation required is as set out in Schedule 1 to this Code. In addition to the written confirmation, Modern Milkman may conduct audits to verify the Supplier’s compliance with this Code. Modern Milkman has no obligation to conduct such audits.
4. Self-monitoring and reporting breachesThe Supplier shall monitor its compliance with the Code and shall report any breaches (actual or suspected) of this Code as soon as possible to Modern Milkman. The Supplier shall not retaliate or take disciplinary action against any worker that has, in good faith, reported breaches of this Code or questionable behaviour, or who has sought advice regarding this Code.
5. Breach, remediation and terminationWhere Modern Milkman becomes aware of a breach of this Code by the Supplier or its workers, Modern Milkman may either:
  1. immediately terminate its business relationship with the Supplier (including any contracts); or
  2. require the Supplier to produce a remediation plan specifying the actions that the Supplier will take that will lead to compliance with the Code, and present it to Modern Milkman within 10 days of being requested to do so. If the Supplier fails to produce the remediation plan within this timeframe or fails to implement it within a reasonable time, Modern Milkman may immediately terminate its business relationship with the Supplier (including any contracts).
  Where Modern Milkman becomes aware that a Representative has been involved in an incident (or incidents) that would constitute a breach of any of the requirements under this Code, were they bound directly by it, Modern Milkman may either:
  1. terminate its business relationship with the Supplier (including any contracts); or
  2. require the Supplier to remedy that incident (or incidents) with that Representative. If the Supplier is not able to remedy such incident with that Representative within a reasonable time, Modern Milkman may immediately terminate its business relationship with the Supplier (including any contracts).

Schedule 1: Sample compliance certificate

As required by Modern Milkman’s Supplier Code of Conduct (Code), [SUPPLIER NAME] certifies that:

We are complying with the requirements in the Code as of [DATE].
We have appropriate systems in place to ensure our own and our suppliers’ continued compliance with the Code.

Signed by:
Signed: …………………
[NAME OF SIGNATORY] on behalf of [SUPPLIER]
Date: ……………………
Please send a copy of this certificate to your TMM contact.