Swan Group WA Pty Ltd is committed to operating all its business activities to the highest standards of business ethics and integrity. We are committed to providing a respectful environment for all workers, free from discrimination, abuse, and exploitation. This extends to respecting human rights. We recognise the ongoing challenges modern slavery and human trafficking poses, and we understand that it can present itself in many ways.
We are a commercial construction company delivering projects throughout Western Australia. Our services cover new build construction and extensions, refurbishments, and fitouts. The construction space is complex, with a range of areas that need to be taken into consideration for this space.
Under the Australian Modern Slavery Act 2018, Modern slavery is defined as including eight types of serious exploitation.
Modern Slavery Type
Explanation
Human trafficking
The unlawful act of transporting or coercing people in order to benefit from their work or service, typically in the form of forced labour or sexual exploitation.
Slavery
When a person has had power of ownership exerted over them by another, including being made an object of purchase and use of their labour in an unrestricted way.
Bonded or indebted labour
Forcing a person to work to pay off a debt, such as visa fees or recruitment fees. Tricking them into working for little or no pay, with no control over their debt. Most or all the money they earn goes to pay off their loan, and the value of their work invariably becomes greater than the original sum of the money borrowed.
Servitude
A form of forced labour that includes the use of coercion, threat, or deception to prevent a person from leaving, for example, employing a person to provide seemingly normal live-in domestic services to a household, but then exploiting and controlling them.
Forced labour
A perpetrator forces a person to work against their will, under threat of punishment.
Forced marriage
When a person gets married without freely and fully consenting, because they have been coerced, threatened, or deceived, or because they are incapable of understanding the nature and effect of a marriage ceremony, for reasons including age and mental capacity.
Worst forms of child labour
When a child is subject to modern slavery, sexual exploitation, involvement in illicit activities (e.g. the production and trafficking of drugs), or work that is likely to harm their health, safety, or morals.
Deceptive recruiting practices
Exploiting a person by deceiving them into a type of modern slavery, including requiring then to sign blank documents and resignation letters, or not providing documents in their own language.
We are committed to ensuring there are no modern slavery concerns in our business or supply chain.
Our role as an employer
We are committed to creating and operating a workplace that is fair and inclusive and where our people feel comfortable to raise issues via confidential grievance mechanisms.
Our Code of Conduct and other company polices are available for all staff to view via our Intranet.
Further we are committed to providing ongoing training to all staff on modern slavery. This is to build knowledge and awareness among all staff to place them in a better position to detect and deter modern slavery activities.
Swan Group WA Pty Ltd is not a reporting entity under the Australian Modern Slavery Act 2018. We however understand the importance of transparency across supply chains in order to present accurate information on real and potential slavery practices, and in order to provide the means by which such practices can be eliminated.
Accordingly, we are committed to assessing and monitoring the risks of modern slavery in our business and through our own supply chain and taking action to eliminate such practices.
Our role in procuring goods and services
Training our internal staff in what constitute modern slavery, and what to do if they believe there is a risk in our supply chain is an integral part of this.
Further to that, we are educating and informing our wider supply chain by integrating modern slavery questions and statements into the supplier onboarding and supply agreements.
Our approach to monitoring modern slavery
Build meaningful relationships with Subcontractors and suppliers – through partnership up and down the supply chain including:
- Providing awareness of modern slavery
- Communicating our expectations
- Recognising and responding to the potential for inappropriate practices
- Providing timely and accurate information on supply practices, and any actions being undertaken to eliminate modern slavery
- Adopt a risk management approach, both internally and with our subcontractors and suppliers to identify high risk areas where modern slavery could be present and evaluate and monitor these risks.
- Recognise the leverage we have to influence change. Consider how our own business practices could influence and contribute towards inappropriate practices, such as where supplier prices are unusually low.