Addressing Modern Slavery

Modern Slavery is estimated to affect over 40 million people worldwide. Modern Slavery is a term used to describe practices such as forced labour, human trafficking, child labour and other severely exploitative practices which typically involve the use of coercion, deception or deprivation of liberty. Modern slavery exists in many industries across many countries. Although the number of victims of modern slavery worldwide is estimated to be in the tens of millions, modern slavery practices tend to be hidden.

In recognition of the significance of modern slavery risks and the need to address them, the Federal Government introduced the Modern Slavery Act 2018. The Act requires entities with an annual consolidated revenue of more than $100m to annually publish a ‘Modern Slavery Statement’ reporting on the modern slavery risks within their operations and supply chains, and the actions being taken to address such risks.

UNSW has been focussed on identifying and prioritising risk areas in order to implement actions to identify, prevent, minimise and remediate risks. UNSW is committed to ensuring a strong response on modern slavery. UNSW are committed to ensuring that:

operations and supply chains do not cause, involve or contribute to modern slavery; and
our suppliers, collaborators and others with whom UNSW does business, respect and share our commitment with regard to minimising the risk of modern slavery.

The Legal Office has esablished and leads a Modern Slavery Working Group which includes representatives from multiple areas of UNSW’s business who actively participate in UNSW’s call to action, including the procurement team who are responsible for identifying and addressing key risks within UNSW's supply chains.

UNSW is committed to meeting the requirements under the Modern Slavery Act 2018 (Cth).

UNSW is an entity with an annual consolidated revenue of more than $100m. As such there is a requirement to report annually on the risks and corrective actions of modern slavery within the universities supply chains.

To report and met the requirements under the Act, procurement has developed a specific Modern Slavery Focus Plan that includes key details of what is anticipated to be completed for year one of the reporting cycle. This follows a broader governance structure that aims to support each reporting year's initiatives. For access to this focus plan, please refer to link within this page.

Supplier Charter

In 2020, UNSW’s first Supplier Charter will be available to all UNSW staff to utilise when engaging and managing suppliers. The Charter clearly set out the University’s expectations of its suppliers and its commitment to work collaboratively with its suppliers in identifying modern slavery risks.

The Supplier Charter can be view above and included within this https://www.fin.unsw.edu.au/sites/default/files/unsw_supplier_charter.pdf

Useful Industry Links

Want the latest in the industry around companies and supply chains prevalent to UNSW that may assist in identifying risks?

https://knowthechain.org - benchmarks 180 companies from the ICT, food and apparel sectors on their approach to managing forced labour and trafficking risks in their supply chains.

https://baptistworldaid.org.au/resources/2019-ethical-fashion-guide/ - Baptist World's Behind the Barcode project grades 130 fashion brands on their approach to labour rights and environmental practices from A to -F

www.behindthebrands.org - Oxfam's Behind the Brands scores the top 10 food and beverage brands globally on their approach to various human rights issues including labour rights.

http://www.modernslaveryregistry.org - the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre provides interactive dashboards that assesses the modern slavery reporting of the FTSE 100.