“TO ENOUGH” BE UNAWARE ISN’T GOOD

Ensuring its supply chain is free from worker exploitation gives Konica Minolta Australia an ethical edge.

For DaviD Cooke, enlightenment came in April 2013 at a company gala dinner in Cambodia where a local anti-trafficking campaigner talked about her experience helping women escape slavery. It struck a chord for the Konica Minolta Australia managing director and he started to do some research. “I became aware there are more than 40 million people enslaved in the world today – and many of them are in corporate supply chains,” he says. “Once I knew that, I couldn’t un-know it.” That led the company to question its own practices. Last year, Cooke brought in human rights lawyer Nicole D’Souza to map Konica Minolta Australia’s supply chain. “We don’t manufacture products ourselves; we’re at the end of the supply chain,” says D’Souza of the photocopier, printer and medical equipment supplier. “So we have potentially great influence on those down the supply chain.” With Australia’s Modern Slavery Act 2018 commencing on 1 January 2019, all companies conducting business in the country with a minimum annual turnover of $100 million are required to report on what they are doing to tackle slavery in their supply chains. So what does it mean to prevent modern slavery? “It’s about ensuring the fundamental things we expect all good businesses to do, such as paying workers in accordance with the law and making sure their hours aren’t excessive,” says D’Souza. It also involves asking questions about what’s happening down the supply chain. “If foreign workers are employed, have their passports been taken? If they’ve been provided with accommodation, are they free to leave? If they want to resign, are they free to? These questions are almost unthinkable for us in Australia but the reality is slavery occurs down the supply chain and ends up in our homes, offices, belongings and food.” The first step towards having an ethical supply chain is to map it, which is harder than it sounds when you don’t know who’s supplying your suppliers. “Most businesses don’t know what their supply chain looks like,” says D’Souza. However, there are tools, such as online platforms Sedex and FRDM, that enable companies to assess and monitor the ethical risks associated with their supply chains. There are business benefits, believes Cooke, who says the company’s focus on social justice has led to far greater levels of staff engagement. “To have really engaged team members is kind of the Holy Grail and it’s not easy to attain.” It’s also about individual and corporate moral responsibility. “To be unaware isn’t good enough.”