Businesses receive council Charter Awards

The charter is based on four commitments by employers: to pay all staff the Real Living Wage; employ North Lanarkshire residents; use local businesses in the supply chain where possible; and ensure fair work practices which attract and retain employees.

Businesses which achieve two or more of these commitments receive a bronze, silver or gold accreditation. Membership of the charter is free.

Cumbernauld Theatre Trust received a gold award, while Balfour Beatty, DMG Services Group and Moock Environmental Solutions received silver awards.

North Lanarkshire Provost Kenneth Duffy visited the companies to present them with the awards, saying: “Congratulations to everyone involved for their commitment to doing business responsibly and being a positive employer who invest in their employees and support the local economy.

“For businesses that sign up to our Employer Charter, it offers clear benefits for both employers and employees as well as making a contribution to growing a vibrant, sustainable economy for everyone in North Lanarkshire.”

Cumbernauld Theatre Trust delivers an arts program that enhances people’s lives, broadens their perspectives, and nurtures performance arts skills for a creative, innovative, fairer Scotland.

They are particularly keen to support multi-disciplinary creative teams, with works that speak the experience of minority groups, and practitioners who are exploring socially engaged practice and ‘slow touring.’ They support new music and emerging bands and contemporary Scottish folk, and singer-songwriters. They are keen to engage the local community offering various ways for people to get involved, from youth drama, to dance and photography for older people, and sensory play for children.

The theatre is committed to challenging poverty and deprivation within the local communities by developing community engagement projects working in partnership to offer cultural access and community engagement projects to residential neighbourhoods in Carbrain, Abronhill and Kildrum.           

Engaging with local schools from these neighbourhoods, they offered free taster sessions in drama theatre, dance and circus skills. 44 creative sessions were offered, working with 341 school children and young people from April to June 2022 from Carbrain Primary School and Kildrum Primary, Glencryan School, Cumbernauld Academy, Calderglen High School.

Cumbernauld Theatre Trust has been awarded a Gold Award, satisfying all of the principles within all four pillars; Fair Pay, Employ North Lanarkshire, Buy North Lanarkshire and Be the Best.

Balfour Beatty is a leading international infrastructure group with 25,000 employees across the UK, US and Hong Kong.

Established in 1909, with 12,000 employees in the UK, Balfour Beatty is now the largest construction and infrastructure provider in the UK, having created and cared for the vital assets that enable societies and economies to grow for over 110 years. This includes work on road and rail, airports, seaports, tunnels and bridges, health and education facilities. heat, light, power and water and places to live and places to work.

The business has a strong relationship with local schools and recently in partnership with the Primary Engineer Project, engaged with 10 schools in North Lanarkshire to inspire the next generation of engineers. The partnership provided a CPD training course to 12 teachers from the schools, as well as kit and resources to build up to 30 projects across two classrooms in each school.

Further demonstrating their commitment to the development of young people and apprenticeships the business is a member of the 5% club which is a movement of employer-members working to create a shared prosperity across the UK by driving ‘earn and learn’ skills training opportunities. They are also members of the Scottish Apprenticeship Advisory Board (SAAB), whose aim is to strengthen employer input and endorsement of the strategic direction of apprenticeships and work-based learning pathways.

The business is also involved in a lot of charitable and voluntary work locally, supporting projects such as the Airbles Rehabilitation Centre and local community groups such as Dalziel St Andrew’s Church and Newarthill Community Council.

Balfour Beatty has been awarded a Silver Award, satisfying many of the principles within the four pillars; Fair Pay, Employ North Lanarkshire, Buy North Lanarkshire and Be the Best.

DMG Services Group is a multi-award-winning roofing contractor, based in Bellshill.

Set up by Darren McGhee, who has over 20 years’ in the industry, the business also encompasses MyRoofCare Ltd, which offers roof maintenance care packages and The DMG Academy of Roofing Ltd, a skills academy offering accredited training.

The business recently won FSB Family Business of the Year Award 2023, and has major contracts with housebuilders such as Cala and large scale maintenance contracts with industry leaders such as Chivas Brothers Distilleries.

As a roofing apprentice himself Managing Director Darren, won apprentice of the year, three years in a row. This inspired him to go on a create The DMG Academy of Roofing Ltd, this is the first of its kind in North Lanarkshire. The academy was founded in response to industry demands to tackle the growing skills shortage in the UK and to provide the quality specialist training which, until now was unavailable.

The business has recently used the academy to link in with local schools and provide an eight week Introduction to Roofing course, which has been massively beneficial to pupils involved, increasing their skills, confidence and providing invaluable experience within the construction sector.

DMG Services Group has been awarded a Silver Award, satisfying many of the principles within all four pillars; Fair Pay, Employ North Lanarkshire, Buy North Lanarkshire and Be the Best.

Moock Environmental Solutions are a multi award-winning professional recycling company focused on the recycling of toner cartridges. The company have been operating for over 20 years, with Managing Director, Graeme Clowe taking over in 2019. Initially focusing on the recycling of ink jets, Moock have evolved into the complex recycling of toner cartridges.

Like many other organisations, Covid-19 posed several challenges to the business – the closure of businesses and increase in working from home meant less printing, and so, less toner cartridges to recycle. In this time, the business turned their focus towards the recycling of plastic children’s toys, which they were able to successfully factor into their processes. Throughout 2020 and 2021 they collected and prevented 16 tonnes of children’s toys from landfill.

Following the lift of Covid-19 restrictions and the return of the working office, the business shifted their focus back to toner cartridge recycling. Their processes involve breaking the toner cartridges into their component parts – plastic, metal, and toner powder – and recycling them appropriately. The business fully recycle 95% of materials that they receive in and are continuously working on increasing this percentage. They are proud to say they don’t send any materials to incineration and are currently working on ongoing projects focused on preventing as many materials from landfill as possible.

Graeme was recently a finalist in the 2023 Great British Entrepreneur of the Year awards. He is passionate about supporting the local community and through the charter has secured a meeting with North Lanarkshire Council’s education team to look at providing entrepreneur workshops to schools. He is also keen to explore the option of setting up a social enterprise side to the business and look at supporting ex-offenders back into the community and employment, again this is something we are supporting him to explore through the charter.

Moock recently became an accredited member of the NL employer charter, securing a Silver Award satisfying many of the principles within the four pillars; Fair Pay, Employ NL, Buy North Lanarkshire and Be the Best.

Find out more about the NL Employer Charter.