VERTX Legal
Modern Slavery Statement
Version 1.0. Effective 11 August 2026. Governed by the laws of England and Wales.
VERTX MODERN SLAVERY STATEMENT
Version: 1.0 Effective date: 11 August 2026 Governing law: England and Wales
1. Why we publish this
In short: we are below the legal threshold and publish anyway, because of what our model is.
1.1 Section 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 statement is voluntary.
1.2 We 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.
1.3 This statement covers the financial year in which it is published and will be reviewed annually.
2. Our structure and our supply chain
In short: a small UK company, a technology supply chain, and engineers we contract with directly.
2.1 VERTX 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.
2.2 The team is small. Most of the people VERTX works with are independent contractors, engaged directly and individually, not employees.
2.3 Our supply chain has two parts. The first is technology and professional services: hosting, payment processing, assessment infrastructure, identity verification, screening data and professional advisers. The risk of forced labour in that part is low, and comparable to any software business.
2.4 The 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.
3. Where the risk actually is in a model like ours
In short: not a factory floor. Recruitment debt, someone else controlling the money, and identity substitution.
3.1 We 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:
3.2 Recruitment 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.
3.3 Control 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.
3.4 Identity 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.
4. What we do about it
In short: seven controls that already exist, not intentions.
4.1 We 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.
4.2 We pay only into an account in the engineer's own name. 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.
4.3 Identity is verified before any placement. No engineer reaches a client without a secure identity check, which also addresses the substitution risk at 3.4.
4.4 We screen against sanctions and watchlists 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.
4.5 We contract with the individual directly. 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.
4.6 Nobody is obliged to accept work. The Independent Contractor Agreement provides expressly that VERTX guarantees no minimum volume of work and that the engineer is under no obligation to accept any placement. Declining costs an engineer nothing.
4.7 Contractual warranties. Our Independent Contractor Agreement and Master Services Agreement carry modern slavery, anti-bribery, anti-money-laundering and sanctions warranties, and our Acceptable Use Policy is incorporated into both.
5. Concerns, and what happens if one is raised
In short: tell us, and it is treated as an incident rather than a complaint.
5.1 No allegation of modern slavery or human trafficking has been made in connection with VERTX, its engineers, its clients or its suppliers.
5.2 If 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.
5.3 Anyone, whether or not they work with us, can raise a concern by writing to hello@vertxtalent.io. A report made in good faith is treated in confidence.
6. What we will do next
In short: the honest list, given our size.
6.1 Review this statement annually, and on any material change to how we engage or pay engineers.
6.2 Extend written anti-slavery terms to suppliers as we take on more of them, rather than relying on our size to make the question academic.
6.3 Keep the fee position exactly as it is. Charging a worker for access to work is the line we do not intend to approach.
7. Approval
7.1 This 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.