Our employees and those of our suppliers are the basis of our success. Protecting their human rights is our paramount responsibility.
Reacon Workspace PortalSince 2020, Reacon staff have access to an intranet site ‘Reacon Workspace’ that provides EmployeeSelf Service, Policies, Procedures, Forms, and News & Events. Our Employee Policies& Procedures Handbook provides the key principles, the responsibilities of managers, our rights and obligations, the “cornerstones of best practice”, and our commitments (fighting discrimination and harassment, preventing conflicts of interest, recruiting fairly). Staff can also access information on managerial best practices, an induction manual, a presentation on collaborative tools, and useful links.
Industrial RelationsIn Australia, the majority of our staff are covered by the National Employment Standards(“NES”) which govern the majority of employees commenced on 1 January 2010. The NES are minimum entitlements which are intended to apply to all private sector employees regardless of whether they are covered by a modern award, agreement, or contract. The 10 matters covered by the NES include:
– maximum weekly hours of work
– requests for flexible working arrangements
– parental leave
– annual leave
– personal/carer’s leave and compassionate leave
– community service leave
– long service leave
– public holidays
– notice of termination or redundancy pay; and
– the provision of a Fair Work Information Statement to employees.
– Personal Data Protection
– Encouraging Diversity
As an Equal Opportunity Employer, we encourage diversity in the workplace with a commitment to employ at least 50% of all new staff from our minority pool of women and indigenous resources.
In-keeping with our commitment to diversity we regularly sub-contract process-oriented activities to persons with disabilities through Disability Services Australia (DSA).
Remote WorkingSince 2020, we have adopted a 4+1 (workplace + home) work from home policy and also used this as an opportunity to test 4+1 as a permanent solution for employees who live over80km from their office or place of work.
Staff Self Development and TrainingReacon Group is committed to enhance the skills, expertise and practices of all its staff.
In 2020, we have instituted a staff ‘Upskill’ program where all new management staff with direct reports will be required to complete the Certificate IV in Business Management andLeadership through our online certified training institution.4.1.5.3
We also encourage each employee to complete the Prince2 and Six Sigma Certifications to increase process, quality and project management skills.
Workplace Health and SafetyWe comply with the workplace health and safety rules in place for all jurisdictions within which we operate and in every office our staff are situated to ensure they are all afforded a healthy and safe working environment. It is down to individuals to make sure that their behaviour does not put others at risk and to inform their respective managers of any hazards or potential hazards they come across.
Furthermore, we ensure the following for all of our working environments:
– that all staff respect their working environment to prevent its deterioration
– that all staff keep adhere to the principles of tidiness and cleanliness of their working areas to contribute to everyone’s comfort
– workplace safety instructions and regulations are displayed in all offices
– fire and first aid safety training courses are run on a regular basis for key staff
– a safety logbook is maintained to monitor mandatory maintenance operations (fire extinguishers, emergency lighting units, lifts etc)
– A compulsory risk assessment is conducted each year and results are recorded and maintained
Modern Slavery StatementOur supply chain is made up of paper merchants, commercial print suppliers, packaging suppliers, technology services suppliers, transport and logistic suppliers and warehouse suppliers. We have direct relationships with over 42 suppliers across these categories however our contract manufacturers manage the sourcing of many of our raw materials (e.g. Paper).
Material risks in our operations and supply chain
As members of the UnitedNations (UN) Global Compact, we recognise the commitment we’ve made to the 10 principles including the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. We protect human rights as the foundation of health and happiness and believe we cannot deliver on our mission without first ensuring individuals touched by our business are granted basic rights and fundamental freedoms to which all human beings are entitled. The process of materiality and mapping to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) identified Goal 8 – Decent Work and Economic Growth as one of our five focus SDGs that we can have an impact on.Millions of people across the world still face human rights abuses every day and have significant challenges accessing their fundamental freedoms. We also know that human rights abuses exist in the industries and markets in which we operate – and may even at times, in our own supply chain where we do not have full visibility or control. Implementing the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, we have a clear responsibility to identify where these risks occur, find any abuses, stop them and prevent any future occurrences.
Our sourcing is often niche and predominantly looks to source locally for local markets in-keeping with our ‘Act Local. Think Global’ sourcing model. We implement a pragmatic approach to supplier compliance in respect to modern anti-slavery requirements, usually commensurate of the location from where the sourcing originates. In locations such as Australia, New Zealand and Singapore where labour laws are more robust and actively enforced our vigilance in respect to the application of these principles are not as pronounced and periods of compliance review are usually longer (e.g. Annual). Whereas locations where labour laws are not of the standards as required by the UN Compact we maintain a more vigilant approach and shorten compliance review periods.
We engage our stakeholders annually as part of our materiality process, including interviews with internal and external stakeholders as well as through surveys and communications throughout the year. We also include desktop reviews on industry sustainability risks and research led insights from organisations such as The Sustainability Consortium of which we are a participant. Our 2021 materiality assessment refresh highlighted the importance of modern slavery to our stakeholders with labour rights and modern slavery, supply chain governance, and ethics, integrity and trust all landing in the top quadrant of our materiality matrix demonstrating the importance to both our internal and external stakeholders, as well as the significance of impact of these topics. Our Executive Committee under the auspices of the Board have ultimate responsibility for the risk management framework and are taken through our materiality process, provide feedback or further areas for exploration and validate our final set of material topics.
The SCOCOur standards and expectations have been laid out in our Supplier Code of Conduct (SCOC) that we launched in 2020 and has a three phase roll out plan with existing suppliers up until the end of 2022. The policy applies to all direct suppliers, including upstream supply chain, raw material suppliers, manufacturing and packaging suppliers. It stipulates that it is the responsibility of direct suppliers to disseminate to their supply base, to educate and exercise due diligence in implementing requirements equivalent or similar to those within our SCOC. Since launch, we have made it mandatory that all new suppliers sign the SCOC within the procurement process, including compliance to the policy within supply agreements and new supplier forms. We have also included several new clauses in our standard template agreements.
B Corp JourneyOur aspirations are to become B Corp certified, in-keeping with these efforts we have adopted guidance on benchmarks, standards and practices from the workers and community sections related to supply chains of the B Corporation Impact Assessment inline with our commitment to become a B Corp by 2024. The assessment covers topics such as freedom of association, collective bargaining, child labor, forced labor, migrant workers, wages, health and safety and diversity and inclusion as well as other environmental, social and governance practices.
Whistle-blower SystemOur independently managed whistle blowing and grievance mechanism ‘Loud’ has been on offer to both internals and externals as a channel for raising concerns confidentially since the beginning of 2020. We have promoted our ‘Loud’ channel with supply partners to ensure individuals touched by our business including those working for our contractors and suppliers have a channel to freely raise concerns regarding actual or suspected unethical, unlawful or undesirable conduct. In 2020 we began publicly disclosing the number of cases raised through the ‘Loud’ channel and will continue to transparently share with our stakeholders any cases of suspected or actual breaches of either our internal or external policies and standards in future Sustainability Reports.
Statement UpdatesThis Statement is reviewed and updated once every two (2) years, the next review will be be conducted in 2023 and will be available on our website.
Contact EnquiriesIf you have any queries or questions about our Sustainability Statement or require any supporting documents please contact us at:
Attention: Corporate Responsibility Officer
Reacon Group Pty Ltd
S1102, 201 Miller Street
North Sydney, NSW 2060
AUSTRALIA
Like to get in touch? Call or email us now.
Phone: +61 2 9122 6803
Email: [email protected]