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POLICY STATEMENT ON PREVENTING MODERN SLAVERY

Addressing the United Kingdom Modern Slavery Act

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About This Statement

This is a statement of the steps Sodiaal has taken in an effort to ensure slavery and human trafficking are not taking place in our supply chain or business. The following document serves as statement complying with the UK Modern Slavery Act 2015 and covers Sodiaal’s 2021, the period of 12 months ending on September 30th, 2024.
Sodiaal recognises that it has a responsibility to take a robust approach to tackling modern slavery. The Company is committed to actively preventing all forms of labour exploitation in its corporate activities, and to ensuring its supply chains are free from slavery and human trafficking.

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Scope

This policy covers Sodiaal UK. The Sodiaal Group in the UK is made up of different legal entities, including :
  • Yoplait
  • Sodima
In 2022, we employed 320 people in the UK, all of whom are based in our London offices. Our primary manufacturing sites to our products imported for sale in the UK are located in France.
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Our Approach

Sodiaal is a cooperative that brings together 20,000 dairy farmers and 10,000 employees. Our cooperative model is based on strong human values, where people are central to the organisation, and also on ethical values that unite us around a common objective : to be
“People to better feed people”:
  • Solidarity and equity
  • Respect
  • Transparency
  • Trust
  • Boldness

These values, shared by all, must guide our daily actions in the accomplishment of our mission: ” to enhance the value of the milk of all members in order to guarantee them an income that best remunerates their work, and to increase and share the profitability of the company in a sustainable manner “.

In order to reaffirm this commitment to its values to its employees, customers, suppliers and other stakeholders, the Sodiaal Group has drawn up this statement on preventing modern slavery.

The Sodiaal Group makes the exercise of its commercial relations conditional on compliance with local legislation, internal charters and international standards in the field of

human rights and working conditions, the environment and ethics.

The Sodiaal Group is committed to building a fair and sustainable relationship with its suppliers based on the Responsible Supplier Relationship Charter, developed by Médiation des Entreprises (Business Mediation) and signed by the Group.

The Sodiaal Group also asks suppliers and partners to commit to respecting the Sodiaal Group’s Code of Conduct, to act against corruption in all its forms, against the employment of minors and forced labour, and to respect the new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

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Explanation Of Terms

Modern slavery’ is the illegal exploitation of people for personal or commercial gain. It covers a wide range of abuse and exploitation including forced labour and human trafficking for labour exploitation; payment for work-finding services and work-related exploitation such as forced use of accommodation.

Victims of modern slavery can be any age, gender, nationality and ethnicity. It is understood that it is often well hidden by the perpetrators with victims, if they perceive of themselves as such, reluctant to come forward.

Policy

Sodiaal commits to preventing modern slavery by:
  • Providing the HR Managers with the necessary training to prevent modern slavery in 2023 in collaboration with Internal Control and Compliance Group’s Department
  • Accepting that job finding fees are a business cost, and will not allow these to be paid by job applicants. The Company will not use any individual or organisation to source and supply workers without confirming that workers are not being charged a work finding fee.
  • Ensuring that all staff responsible for directly recruiting workers are aware of issues around third party labour exploitation and signs to look for.
  • Ensuring that labour sourcing, recruitment and worker placement processes are under the control of trusted and competent HR Managers and Line Managers.
  • Positively encouraging and supporting employees and agency workers to report such exploitation which may be occurring
  • Communicating with all our suppliers, including farmers who supply us with milk, to encourage them to adopt policies and procedures consistent with the above, and to provide advice
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The Ethics Line

An ethics alert system has been set up to offer any employee the possibility of reporting any breach of any of the provisions of the Group’s Code of Conduct. This secure line is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

The Ethics alert is available on our Code of Conduct, on our Corporate Website and can be used by anyone wishing to raise a concern or question. Ethics alert cases are routed to Internal Control and Compliance Department to triage for initial review, who then align an investigation team depending on the report.

While the Ethics alert is open to all Sodiaal stakeholders to report concerns about any part of our value chain, it is primarily used for employees to report concerns of our Code of Conduct violations. The Ethics alert helps us feel confident that the risk of modern slavery in our owned operations is low.

How Do We Alert ?

This Policy Statement was validated at the Comex meeting on August 22nd, 2022 who review and update it annually for the UK territory.