We are committed to respecting the dignity, wellbeing and human rights of our people and the communities in which we operate. This includes a commitment to playing our part in eradicating modern slavery.
Representatives of key business areas periodically meet to confirm key modern slavery actions are delivered and our approach to modern slavery risk continues to be enhanced. We continue to engage with our stakeholders – for modern slavery, these include our people, suppliers, industry partners, investors and other stakeholders such as industry peers and advocacy groups – to inform our approach, and enhance and improve our disclosures and reporting.
Our enterprise risk management policy and framework provides the business guidance as to how we identify, assess, monitor and manage material business risks, including the risk of modern slavery, in our direct operations and supply chain.
Our enterprise risk management policy and framework are integrated into our day-to-day business processes. Risk management accountability is a key requirement for our business managers and leaders.
Our teams are made up of people in primarily professional or managerial roles, who are permanently employed and either covered by an award or are award free and have their eligibility to work confirmed by us as part of our recruitment and onboarding process.
Employees covered by an award are primarily covered by the General Retail Industry Award and Clerks Private Sector Award and are paid accordingly.
We educate our people about modern slavery, Scentre Group’s commitment to eradicating modern slavery and how to manage the risks of modern slavery in our supply chain.
We achieve this through our learning and development programs, our approach to knowledge sharing and cross-functional integration for projects, and the tools we make available to our people to effectively perform their roles.
We require our suppliers to abide by our Supplier Code of Conduct, Human Rights Policy, and our Supplier Grievance Management Policy. We operate under the Shopping Centre Council of Australia Code of Conduct for Fair Service Provisions and are a signatory to the Australian Supplier Payment Code.
Our Supplier Code of Conduct details our expectations of suppliers, including that they ensure there are no instances of modern slavery in their operations and supply chains, and will comply with all applicable laws and regulations relating to modern slavery.
Modern slavery risk assessments are embedded into our procurement processes. To confirm we have identified all higher risk suppliers, our teams are asked to directly consider the risk of modern slavery in their supply chains as part of the annual review of team risk registers.
Suppliers who are identified as having a potentially higher risk for modern slavery are surveyed using the Property Council of Australia’s (PCA’s) Informed 365 tool to more comprehensively assess risks present in their operations and supply chains, and to understand what processes they have in place to address the risk of modern slavery.
Our expectation is that our suppliers maintain their own grievance management mechanisms and that, where appropriate, an employee of a supplier engage first with the supplier’s own grievance management process before raising a grievance with us. However, we recognise that this may not always be practical or realistic.
Our supplier grievance management policy sets out the principles we apply in managing concerns, issues or incidents raised by an employee of a supplier, or a supplier to a supplier, who believes they are the subject of unreasonable treatment by Scentre Group, its team members, contractors or suppliers, in or in connection with a Scentre Group workplace.
