Eradicating Modern Slavery and our Partnership with Sedex

Modern Slavery describes the exploitation of people through coercion, threats, or deception. It includes servitude, forced labour, debt bondage, deceptive recruitment practices and the worst forms of child labour, as well as trafficking in person and forced marriage.

The Modern Slavery Act 2018 (Cth) requires Australian organisations with revenue of over A$100m per annum to submit a board-approved statement describing:

• the reporting entity;
• its structure, operations and supply chain;
• the risks of modern slavery in its operations and supply chain;
• actions taken to assess and address these risks;
• how the effectiveness of these actions is assessed;
• the process of consultation undertaken with any controlled entities.

“Embracing the principles, values and standards of human rights, fairness, equality and diversity throughout our extended supply chains”.

Approximately 3,000 entities in Australia will be required to report with many having published or about to publish their first such statement.

Foodbuy Australia through our parent organisation, Compass Group Australia, is about to release our second annual statement which reflects our long-standing commitment alongside our specific investments and activities to both our Member Clients and our Supply Partners.

Foodbuy has enshrined this anti-Modern Slavery commitment in our Purchasing and Supply Chain Policy since 2015, and aligning our practices with the Base Code of the Ethical Trading Initiatives Base Code, committing that:

• Employment is freely chosen
• Freedom of association and the right to collective bargaining is respected
• Working conditions are safe and hygienic
• Child labour shall not be used
• Living wages are paid
• Working hours are not excessive
• No discrimination is practised
• Regular employment is provided
• No harsh or inhumane treatment is allowed.

These values and commitments, supported by distinct policies and procedures, are shared with our Supply Partners and are a critical requirement of working with us. This alongside the specific Modern Slavery provisions incorporated in our standard terms and conditions, our commercial relationships, and our ongoing governance and SRM processes all form a core component of our procurement operations.

To apply systematic, risk-based scrutiny to our supply chains, Foodbuy Australia has undertaken an exciting new Partnership program with Sedex, a leading ethical trade membership organisation. Amongst the expert guidance, insight and experience Sedex has gathered from its global activities, they provide a sophisticated and proven online platform where both buyer and supplier organisation can register and connect to map their supply chains, profile potential risk and coordinate activities together.

This solution enables easy deployment of online and structured Supplier Assessment Questionnaires which can form the basis for a developed supplier and supply chain risk assessment process drawing from a wealth of information pertaining to the potential and experience-based prevalence of Modern Slavery across the industry sector and geographic attributes of the supplier, the product/services and the extended supply chains both domestically and globally.

This risk assessment is critical to enable Foodbuy to focus our ongoing investment and activity where we can deliver the greatest positive impact and through our work with suppliers, across many tiers, to best understand, evaluate and take action.

Sedex has also developed the “Sedex Members Ethical Trade Audit (SMETA)” standard – a consistent and common standard for supply chain review, audit and visualisation. This standard enables the investments and activity with our Supply Partners to be shared across our industry and our Member Clients, enabling us all to work together on this global challenge.

We are very excited about the work we are undertaking with our Sedex partners and in being an active, committed, and positive influence within our industry to eradicate Modern Day Slavery. These commitments are just one of the purpose-driven procurement elements within our Foodbuy “WorldFirst” platform and we invite you to see more of our passion at https://foodbuy.com.au/our-community/

Our Modern Day Slavery Statement can be found here