Modern slavery is a fundamental aspect of respecting human rights and an essential element of entities’ Environmental, Social and Governance strategies. For our firm, our commitment to supporting clients’ in their human rights and modern slavery strategies speaks directly to our PwC Purpose to build trust in society and solve important problems.
Behind every modern slavery risk is the potential for exploitation and serious harm to people. Businesses have a responsibility to do what they can to ensure that their activities do not adversely affect the human rights of people.
Businesses can face significant reputational impacts if modern slavery is present in their operations or supply chains.
The Modern Slavery Act 2018 (Cth) commenced operation on 1 January 2019. All entities that are based, or operating, in Australia, with consolidated revenue of at least $100M must report annually on the risks of modern slavery in their operations and supply chains, and the actions they are taking to address those risks. Entities are also expected to progress to better and more informed practices year on year, as part of a continual improvement approach to their modern slavery response.
More than 6,000 entities across Australia have commenced their modern slavery reporting journey, and we have seen a wide variance in the maturity and extent of entities’ approach.
PwC brings together specialist disciplines including legal, assurance, due diligence and human rights to give you the insight, foresight and independent advice you need to identify, understand and manage your approach to meeting your modern slavery obligations here and abroad.
How we can help:
Understand legislative obligations, broader stakeholder expectations and the fiduciary responsibilities of the Board in signing off the annual modern slavery statement;
Understand the executive responsibilities of management in driving the business’s modern slavery response;
Establish and refine internal governance structures to support their modern slavery reporting and broader response to respecting human rights;
Undertake maturity analysis and benchmarking of modern slavery statements with reference to industry, entity size and other attributes;
Recommend and implement processes and controls to identify, report on and remediate modern slavery and broader human rights issues;
Draft, refine and review modern slavery statements to support entities’ reporting responsibilities, and align to their level of ambition;
Review and uplift operational and supply chain or third party policies and procedures from a human rights lens, in line with United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and International Labour Organisation frameworks
Analyse the slavery risk associated with first tier suppliers, and move deeper into the supply chain through supplier due diligence, data cleansing, and supplier heat maps and analysis to deliver a targeted, prioritised and proportional response that is specific to industry, sector and geography
Develop strategic roadmaps for future modern slavery reporting in line with legislative requirements and entity ambition levels
Facilitate educational workshops and strategy sessions with senior stakeholders, including Boards who sign off on their entity’s modern slavery statements as well as executive teams and functional leaders who drive the strategy
Support human rights due diligence processes that help businesses identify, prevent, and mitigate their human rights impacts, both actual and potential.
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