Legal Modern Slavery
Modern Slavery Statement
- Version
- 1.2
- Effective
- 6 October 2026
- Governing law
- England and Wales
On this page · 7 sections
VERTX MODERN SLAVERY STATEMENT
1Why we publish this
We are below the legal threshold and publish anyway, because of what our model is.
1.1Section 54 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 requires a statement from commercial organisations with a turnover of £36 million or more. VERTX is well below that threshold and is not required to publish one. This is a voluntary statement.
1.2We publish it because of what we do rather than how large we are. VERTX engages individual engineers overseas and places them with companies in the United Kingdom. That is exactly the shape of arrangement in which exploitation hides, and a company operating it should be able to say plainly what it does to prevent that, whether or not a statute compels it.
1.3This statement covers the financial year in which it is published and will be reviewed annually.
2Our structure and our supply chain
A small UK company, a technology supply chain, and engineers we contract with directly.
2.1VERTX Talent Ltd is registered in England and Wales, company number 16902446, at 71 to 75 Shelton Street, Covent Garden, London, WC2H 9JQ. It is a managed engineering service. It sources, assesses and matches engineers, holds the contracts, and runs the administration around an engagement.
2.2The team is small. Most of the people VERTX works with are independent contractors, engaged directly and individually, not employees.
2.3Our supply chain has two parts. The first is technology and business services: hosting, payment processing, assessment infrastructure, identity verification, screening data and office software. The risk of forced labour in that part is low, and comparable to any software business.
2.4The second part is the engineers themselves, and that is where our attention goes. We do not treat it as low risk because the work is skilled. Skilled work is not a defence against coercion.
3Where the risk actually is in a model like ours
Not a factory floor. Recruitment debt, someone else controlling the money, and identity substitution.
3.1We have assessed the realistic risks in engaging an individual overseas and placing them with a client, rather than importing a risk register written for manufacturing. The three that matter are:
3.2Recruitment debt. A worker charged a fee to obtain work, or required to repay a cost out of future earnings, is in debt bondage. Fees charged to workers are among the clearest indicators of forced labour identified by the International Labour Organization.
3.3Control of earnings by a third party. Where somebody other than the worker receives or controls their pay, the worker is not free to leave. This is how control is exercised in practice far more often than physical confinement.
3.4Identity substitution. Where the person doing the work is not the person who was assessed and contracted, the assessed person may be a front, and the person actually working has no protection, no contract and no route to complain.
4What we do about it
Seven controls that already exist, not intentions.
4.1We never charge an engineer a fee, and nothing is deducted from what they earn. No application fee, no placement fee, no subscription, no cut. VERTX is paid by the client. This is the single most important control in this statement, because a worker who has paid nothing to get the work cannot be in debt for it.
4.2We pay only into an account in the engineer's own name, or in the name of their own registered company. We pay from our own funds, whether or not a client has paid us. We do not pay a family member's account, a third party, or a company the engineer does not control. Where a payment instruction points somewhere else, it is refused and reviewed rather than processed.
4.3Identity is verified before any placement. No engineer reaches a client without a secure identity check, which also addresses the substitution risk at 3.4.
4.4We screen against sanctions and watchlists when an engineer applies, again at the identity check, and periodically afterwards. Screening is against named individuals and entities. It never uses nationality, ethnicity or national origin as a proxy, and results are never shared with a client.
4.5We contract with the engineer directly, or with the engineer's own company where they work through one. There is no labour broker, no intermediary agency and no sub-supplier layer between VERTX and the engineer, so there is nowhere for a fee or a controlling party to sit unseen.
4.6Nobody is obliged to accept work. The VERTX Engineer Terms provide expressly that VERTX does not promise any amount of work and that the engineer is free to turn down any engagement. Declining costs an engineer nothing. Engineers are also free to work for anyone else at the same time.
4.7Contractual promises. Our Engineer Terms carry sanctions, anti-bribery and conflict-of-interest promises. Our Master Services Agreement carries anti-bribery and modern slavery commitments from both parties. Our Acceptable Use Policy is incorporated into both.
5Concerns, and what happens if one is raised
Tell us, and it is treated as an incident rather than a complaint.
5.1No allegation of modern slavery or human trafficking has been made in connection with VERTX, its engineers, its clients or its suppliers.
5.2If a concern is raised, it is handled under our internal serious incident protocol: the engagement is put on hold rather than quietly continued, the facts are established before any decision affecting the person, and where there is a reasonable suspicion of an offence it is reported to the relevant authority. We will not treat a worker who raises a concern less favourably for having raised it.
5.3Anyone, whether or not they work with us, can raise a concern by writing to hello@vertxtalent.io (engineers may also use talent@vertxtalent.io). A report made in good faith is treated in confidence.
6What we will do next
The honest list, given our size.
6.1Review this statement annually, and on any material change to how we engage or pay engineers.
6.2Extend written anti-slavery terms to suppliers as we take on more of them, rather than relying on our size to make the question academic.
6.3Keep the fee position exactly as it is. Charging a worker for access to work is the line we do not intend to approach.
7Approval
7.1This statement is published by VERTX Talent Ltd and approved by its director. It is made in the spirit of section 54(1) of the Modern Slavery Act 2015, and voluntarily, VERTX being below the threshold at which that section applies.