Colas Limited
We, the undersigned, commit to honour the Armed Forces Covenant and support the Armed Forces Community. We recognise the value Serving Personnel, both Regular and Reservists, Veterans and military families contribute to our business and our country.
The Armed Forces Covenant
An enduring covenant between the people of the United Kingdom, Her Majesty’s Government and all those who serve or have served in the Armed Forces of the Crown and their families
The first duty of Government is the defence of the realm. Our Armed Forces fulfil that responsibility on behalf of the Government, sacrificing some civilian freedoms, facing danger and, sometimes, suffering serious injury or death as a result of their duty. Families also play a vital role in supporting the operational effectiveness of our Armed Forces. In return, the whole nation has a moral obligation to the members of the Naval Service, the Army and the Royal Air Force, together with their families. They deserve our respect and support, and fair treatment.
Those who serve in the Armed Forces, whether Regular or Reserve, those who have served in the past, and their families, should face no disadvantage compared to other citizens in the provision of public and commercial services. Special consideration is appropriate in some cases, especially for those who have given most such as the injured and the bereaved.
This obligation involves the whole of society: it includes voluntary and charitable bodies, private organisations, and the actions of individuals in supporting the Armed Forces. Recognising those who have performed military duty unites the country and demonstrates the value of their contribution. This has no greater expression than in upholding this Covenant.
Section 1: Principles of the Armed Forces Corporate Covenant
1.1 We Colas Limited will endeavour in our business dealings to uphold the key principles of the Armed Forces Covenant, which are:
- no member of the Armed Forces Community should face disadvantage in the provision of public and commercial services compared to any other citizen;
- and in some circumstances that special treatment may be appropriate especially for the injured or bereaved.
Section 2: Demonstrating our commitment
2.1 Colas Limited recognises the value serving personnel, reservists, veterans and military families bring to our business. We will seek to uphold the principles of the Armed Forces Covenant, by pledging to the following:
- Armed Forces Friendly
- UK Service Veterans And Leavers
- UK Service Spouses And Partners
- Flexible Leave For Spouses
- UK Reservists
- UK Cadets
- Armed Forces Day
We also pledge the following:
Promoting the fact that we are an armed forces-friendly organisation We will promote this through our internal and external communication channels and through recruitment campaigning Seeking to support the employment of veterans young and old and working with the Career Transition Partnership (CTP), in order to establish a tailored employment pathway for Service Leavers We will work with the CTP to ensure opportunities are available for veterans We will participate in local career fairs specifically aimed at ex Armed Forces Where practical we will invite to interview, all veteran applications who meet the skills and criteria of the role Striving to support the employment of Service spouses and partners We will work with partnership organisations to ensure our roles are accessible to Service spouses We will attempt to find alternative employment within the business for service spouses should they need to re-locate to accompany their partner Endeavouring to offer a degree of flexibility in granting leave for Service spouses and partners before, during and after a partners deployment; We will show flexibility with leave options and sympathetically review holiday requests before, during or after a partners overseas deployment where the veteran has leave to spend time with their family. We will offer special paid leave for employees who are bereaved or whose spouse/partner is injured. Seeking to support our employees who choose to be members of the Reserve forces, including by accommodating their training and deployment where possible; Employees who are required to attend annual training with HM Forces (including cadet units) are granted time off, in addition to their annual leave, up to 28 working days We will wherever possible accommodate the mobilisation of our reservists if they are required to be deployed. Offering support to our local cadet units, either in our local community or in local schools, where possible We will ensure employees are given reasonable paid time off to support Community Involvement We will engage with local organisations to identify opportunities where we can support the local community Aiming to actively participate in Armed Forces Day We will promote this through internal awareness campaigns We will organise and encourage employees to get involved in internal fundraising events
2.2 We will publicise these commitments through our literature and/or on our website, setting out how we will seek to honour them and inviting feedback from the Service community and our customers on how we are doing.