Our people

Policies and practices

We have rigorous Human Resources policies and practices which are in line with our obligations pursuant to the Act. The Group’s policies are reflective of the main provisions of the ILO fundamental principles, including the elimination of all forms of forced labour, the abolition of child labour, the elimination of all forms of discrimination in respect of employment and occupation, and also in respect of freedom of association and collective bargaining. We request all our agency suppliers to comply with the same terms and our Code.

The following items are sections of our Employee Handbook, which set out what our employees can expect of the Group. Employees agree to the terms of the Employee Handbook when they sign their employment contracts.

Table 6

Policy	Description
Health & Safety	Rothschild & Co will provide adequate welfare facilities in a safe and healthy environment.
Equal Opportunities	Rothschild & Co will make every effort to provide a working environment free from harassment, intimidation and discrimination which we consider unacceptable behaviour. The policy applies to all areas of employment including recruitment, the terms and conditions of employment, training, career development, replacement, promotion, transfer, redundancy, rehiring, benefits, compensation, retirement and termination.
Bullying & Harassment Policy	The aim of our non-harassment policy is to draw attention to, and seek to prevent, all types of behaviour which amount to harassment and which are therefore unacceptable.
Whistleblowing	The Whistleblowing policy is intended to provide safeguards to enable employees to raise concerns about malpractice in connection with Rothschild & Co.

Staff profile and recruitment

Rothschild & Co has been carrying out background checks on all employees via third parties for over 20 years. These background checks require individuals to present identification documents and the third party confirms the candidates’ employment history, credit search and professional qualifications, amongst other things. Salaries are paid into bank accounts (rather than cash-in-hand) and the vast majority of employees of Rothschild & Co are classified as ‘white-collar workers’. Background checking procedures are thorough and apply equally to permanent employees as to contractors and agency staff. These are all indications that our staff have a particular profile that is low-risk from a modern slavery perspective.

We have not found any evidence to suggest that modern slavery is present within our business. Although we have assessed that we have minimal risk in this respect, we remain alert to possible risks of modern slavery and we will continue to adhere to our stringent Human Resources standards.