Modern Slavery Practices With International Supply Chains: Angel Foods Pty Ltd Assessment Answer

Answer :

Sustainability issues

Executive Summary 

The assessment holds the discussion about the examples & types of modern slavery practices existing in the several industries along with international supply chains. It has been found that even though several businesses from well-developed country believe in purport of slavery-free environment, in reality, slavery has changed its form. The modern-day slavery includes forced labour, slave-like environment to the employee, debt-bondage, working for extra hours without any pay as well as violence in commonplaces. The Australian Government has proposed purpose of the reporting requirement, where modern slavery can be defined to eradicate slavery, human trafficking & slavery-like offences by a corporate or business. The supply chain operation & procurement of the Angel Foods Ltd that has been big global food-distributor specialised in the whole of fresh produce also noted to be impacted in case of company function in compliance with Modern Slavery Act. Moreover, measures of recommendation ensure that Angel Foods rise as a socially responsible organization along with ensuring ethical practices within the supply chain to gain high reputation in the marketplace.

Introduction

The adequate management of the flow of services & goods, including every procedure of transforming raw material into the final product is termed as supply chain management. In such a context, the assessment aims to provide a discussion on the adequate management of the supply chain of Angel Food Ltd in addressing new legislation. The company that took pride in taking sustainability approach to reduce its carbon footprint in business, the way new legislation of Modern Slavery Act will impact sustainability & business operation in future will be discussed. Moreover, the discussion of several modern-day slavery practices persistence in several industries or global supply chain, the impact of legislation on Angle Food's procurement & certain recommendation will also be provided in the unit. 

Sustainability issues & impact

Discussion of the types & examples of modern-day slavery practices evident in various industries &/or global supply chains today 

The modern-day slavery custom is apparent everywhere. The business sector from construction to agriculture along with production chain food, services & clothes consumed internationally are tainted with strained manual labour. The world is three times richer related to global GDP prior to 30 years ago, yet it is evident with the historic intensity of inequalities. For instance, 80% of the people in the world mentioned that minimum-wages are not enough to live-on; employment is non-st&ard form, works are insecure, consisting predominance of short-period contracts. Similarly, modern slavery & informal work are not only increasing but growing prevalent in the supply chain of the big corporation (Gold et al. 2015). In every nation, unscrupulous recruiters & employers are growingly exploiting gaps in the migration law, international labour & enforcement. The Angel Foods Pty Limited is a large international food distributor in Sydney with specialised in wholesales of non-perishable & fresh produced foods. Irrespective of the company to be in the foodservice sector, the new legislation related to Modern Slavery aims to improve the transparency of the company's supply chain just like other industries in Australia. A person is living in a disturbing time, where public trust in the global marketplace is draining away. The poorer economies & rich citizens are encountering strong uncertainty & declining or stalled prosperity as well as lamenting the failure of control. In the latest golden era, industrialization or globalization is related to insecure employment, low wages, striking inequalities & stateless corporations. In the year 2019 on 1^st January, Modern Slavery legislation 2018 came into force, herald’s new statutory modern slavery reporting needs for big company functioning in Australia (McGregor & Wood 2019). Reporting legislation relates to the action taken to reply to modern slavery risk in supply chains & operations of reporting & its controlled entities. The construction industry has been a crucial sector for concern of modern slavery in Australia. The low salaried work, less skilled & manual works have been recognized as a segment, where workers more likely to subjected to forced working. The temporary agency employment is common, where employees are filling such profile lack in fair work option, poorly educated & from high-risk nations (Crabb & Coci 2019). Similarly, the construction sector is characterized by a complex & long supply chain, stretching across several nations. 

There are several Australian businesses that might be well-aware about the risk of slavery in the supply chain or businesses. As per the statistics, the evidence of slavery in Australia is relatively low, but the issue is that data present a lower level of information & awareness of the problem, where original incidence might be higher at the global & domestic scale.  The Walk-Free Foundation’s index on Global Slavery indicates that over 40 million individuals globally are subjected to certain kind of modern slavery & near about AUD 500 billion annually is gained in the worldwide private economy from forced workings. There are approximately 4300 individuals in Australia that are enslaved (Christ et al. 2019). In the restaurant & agriculture sector, where modern slavery is still alive it incorporates condition of exploitation individual that cannot reject or leave work due to threat, abuse of deception or power, violence & coercion. One of the advocates argued that such issue is specifically entrenched in the restaurant & agriculture sector of Australia, & several individuals found they subjected to slave-like situations. For instance, there have been strained labour exploitation in the agriculture sector & affected labour of cooks & chefs in the restaurant industry. It is sometimes hard to differentiate between harsh work condition & slavery. Most of the people hesitate to come forward & make complaints about or to authorities (Tong 2019). Some of the types of modern-day slavery in the respective industry reflect abusive behaviour towards immigrant labourer at the workplace. The worker’s agent was confiscating the passport of migrant labour, even with fewer clutches of English compelling them to live & work in a filthy environment. Enslavement has been observed on Thai fishing vessels to guide in producing seafood traded worldwide involving Australia. As Angel Food Company have also been in foodservice sector supplying its products across metropolitan region involving pubs, restaurants, hotels & airline caterers etc., it needs to comply with anti-slavery regulation to eradicate modern slavery in its supply chain & business practices in the marketplace. The Sustainable Enhancement Goals places worker’s right & social development centre & front of business practices (Christ & Burritt 2018). Such development goals have been structure to help government & business strive for better sustainability st&ards along with improving stress on businesses to commit such goals. It has been argued that eliminating modern slavery is likely to improve attention in coming years. 

Although, there have been several businesses from developed country claim to be slavery free in realism, the efficiency of the audit procedure that contributes to such evaluation has been a matter of debate. The social audit has noted to restrain their activities from providing owned directly by a large organization in the supply chain or suppliers in tier one. For instance, one in three organizations seeks transparency related to workforce practices below tier one suppliers. It is problematic, wherein upstream in the supply chain, many workers cases of abuse in workplaces tend to happen. Such consequences of contract workers ignored by companies that engage via agents or intermediaries increase consequences towards slavery or vulnerable individual in international product channels. There have been several instances of modern slavery in the business industry that uncovered in current years. Among the most prominent were labour practices in New Zeal& waters over foreign charter fishing vessels operation. There have been instances of forced labour, debt bondage & violence in common places. On the other h&, Spain’s agriculture labourers were noted to be a live slave environment. In the UK the migrant labourers in agriculture sector subjected to exploitation & even in the US later Hurricane Katrina, migrant labour force to make repairs to hampered oil infrastructure & trafficked in the nation (Christ & Burritt 2018). Later in Brazil, salve worker has recognized in sugar cane labours responsible for Ethanol manufacturing, wherein West Africa worker condition related to mining & cocoa production has been well recorded. Lebaron & Lister (2015) added that evidence of modern slavery has been encountered in nations from Australia, South Africa, Bolivia, Uzbekistan, China, Vietnam, to the few depicting the worldwide extent & reach slavery issue. In adverse cases, the labourers found to be kept under forced & armed guards to work long hours at a certain time prevented from leaving.

Those situations are epitomised by the existence of modern slavery in approximate every supply chain at a global level. The increase in forced working labour, human trafficking & obnoxious child labour is a basic challenge to the business reputation of a company like Angel Foods & government. The elimination of such challenges is important to step in case the global marketplace wishes to deliver shared security, recover reliability with electorates & shared prosperity. Australia's government identifies National Action Plan as an important area of focus to respond to worker exploitation in the supply chain. Unity might be increase between diverse governments that they come collected to construct some significant actions. The business organization in Australia facilitating decent & fair wages, potential action to eradicate child labour along with social dialogue would be important components of the inclusive & sustainable global supply chain. 

A discussion of how this could impact Angel Foods’ procurement & supply chain operations 

In relation to the identified evidence from above, it is deduced that agriculture & food industries are no unfamiliar to the risk of modern slavery. The supply executives of Angle Food Ltd need to comply with their business operation under the Modern Slavery Act to increase the transparency of the company’s supply chain. The company have taken pride in their sustainability-based method to confirm reducing carbon-footprint in corporate operation through the Environmental Management System in a set with HACCP & ISO 14001 certification. The new legislation that took influence in Australia would impact the alternation of current business operation in many ways. The respective administration imposes latest reporting regulation in an organization like Angel Food to detail & recognizes their activities to address the risk of contemporary slavery in its supply chains. The New South Wales in the year 2018 has been Australian jurisdiction to form Modern Slavery Act 2018 making it important for Australian business organization to formulate its operation in the marketplace in the way that does not violate slavery act (Feasley 2016). The act offers wider modern slavery definition & covers several offences under Human Tissue 1983, Criminal Code 1995 & Crimes 1900 (Cairns et al. 2019). The Angel Food would require publishing publicly available statement of modern slavery. Similarly, the company even taking sustainability approaches to increase its reputation in the market, there would be an adequate influence on supply-chain operation & company’s procurements that need strategic utilization for the company's own good. In context to procurement referring to acquiring services & goods under Modern Slavery legislation, the company can put its significant effort to combat forced labour, human trafficking or slavery practices existing in supply chains of the business. Those entities in the food services sector require paying adequate notice as supply chain increasingly becoming global. The company's statement over Modern slavery should involve a minimum of information like business, organization framework & its supply chains. The related policies, remediation process & due diligence, would also be mentioned in supply chain & business of the company. The managing director might need to play an active role in managing & assessing risks to confirm that contemporary slavery does not exist in supply chains or business. The company can conduct training to inform its employees & management about preventing slavery within the business. The regulators & Federal Government has taken the initiative to investigate abuses over vulnerable migrant labourers on farms, Angel Foods Ltd, as industry participants in Australia have to take certain steps to address risks with differentiated outcomes. In order to effectively undertake its supply chain operation along with smooth procedure in the wholesale of fresh & non-perishable foods, the sourcing of products with ethical certification as Fair Trade & UTZ certification would be significant. It would be m&atory for the selected company as in membership or participation of data-sharing company to audit suppliers, for instance, Supplier Ethical Data Exchange. The implementation of national labour hire certification scheme incorporating training events for employers would be beneficial. 

The annual trafficking & slavery statement might require consisting certain basic areas of actions, where for a business like Angel Foods that already engage in sustainability approaches, the statement may be incorporated as a segment of their current reporting. The common areas of operation would require having a brief description of the company's business model & healthy supply chain relationships. The business policy respect to contemporary slavery must involve auditing procedure & due diligence establishments (Christ & Burritt 2018). The training provided & available to the workforce or executive in the management of the supply chain & the rest of the workplace can help to set sound business practices. In relation to the principal risks to human trafficking & slavery, the company manages & evaluates current inequalities & forced labour in an organization & within the supply chain. It can be stated that Angel Foods significantly incorporating its Environmental Administration System with new legislation of Modern Slavery Act would encounter an efficient impact on its supply & procurement. In order to be prepared for such reforms the business organization having almost 75% of its products sourced locally in Australia; have to take the step of updating its current code of conduct, supplier contracts & human rights related to modern slavery problem. Similarly, tasking senior leadership team members with accountability to establish & administer procedure & policies, reporting & monitoring compliance helps to make sure company enact under amended rules (Crabb & Coci 2019). It would be important for the company to map its supply chain & recognize vulnerable suppliers to modern slavery involving high-risk goods & sectors, then engage & investigate with such suppliers to confirm they adhere & accept to organization’s new anti-slavery procedure & policies. The track of internal audit of foodservice business & outer-audits of high-risk suppliers to manage compliance with the organization's anti-slavery procedure & policies would be beneficial to eliminate the threat to smooth supply chain management. The establishment of whistle-blowing policy becomes important to strengthen the voice of the employee in supply chain & business operation to be up-front about risk or evidence of slavery in the company. The legislation that modelled to combat slavery might involve appropriate sign-off or level approval & well-known disclosure of statement in the organization's websites. In procurement, it becomes m&atory to offer enforcement & monitoring technique & implement sanction wherever needed to a company with transparency provision. Additionally, due diligence requirements support criminal remedy & access civil facilitated to modern slavery victims (Business-humanrights 2019). In here, under compliance with diligence necessities, it becomes m&atory for Angle Foods Ltd to the abduction of products or services in case it fails to display due-diligence from high-risk areas. Moreover, Angel Foods Ltd might collaborate with several other corporates in a similar sector to implement best practices in terms of resulting transparency & modern slavery workings. It is deduced that result for failure to operate as per current legislation is adverse. The ignorance is not be excused for the absence of compliance, where failure would be under public knowledge. 

A malfunction to participate in modern slavery might result in adverse disruption to business & hamper to the br& image & reputation in the marketplace. With social media or media interest campaigns, it can be enough that the company is associated with the allegation of contemporary slavery for harm to occur. The selected company need to act in accordance with the new legislation, to eliminate or reduce chances of any compliance measures & proposed penalties for non-compliance. It is crucial that reporting entities start reviewing their collected data & supply chain to operate the business under new reporting legislation. Therefore, given the case of Angle Foods Ltd the company not only have to manage business practices related to sustainability-based methods but also engage in Modern Slavery regulation to better the life & living of workforce in the nation. It is significant to improve the reputation of the company across the global market as well making it socially responsible towards its community & society. Thus, new legislation aiming to improve the transparency of the organization's supply chain is going to influence significantly the operations relating supply chain & procurement practices. 

Recommendations on the measures that Angel Foods should undertake to ensure more socially responsible & ethical practices in their supply chain

The companies often do not underst& the way in which their business impact the individuals that supply or make its products as well as influences on the environment. The new legislation as Modern Slavery Act in Australia makes it is m&atory for a business organization like Angel Foods to incorporate supplier contracts, policies, address risk in the supply chain, consider due-diligence & audits in context to anti-slavery practices. It is noted that effort of the company to eliminate modern slavery in the nation & liberate forced labour increase the reputation of the company in the eye of its potential supplier & consumer in the supply chain (New 2015). On the other h&, to ensure ethical practices & socially responsible business in the supply chain, it is recommended that the company take adequate responsibility of due-diligence & transparent supply chain. The investors of the company need to pay attention at the time of signing a contract so to enter the merger or be engaged in large capital. It is suggested that assessment of the risk would be the cornerstone of a successful corporation & business practices, wherein compliance with regulation, the interest of stakeholder is protected. The company under supply chain operation can comply with public procurement to play an important role in modern-slavery prohibition. It is recommended that Angle Foods making efforts to eliminate slavery in the workplace can also rise as the socially responsible corporate at the marketplace. In here, the company can include labour clauses in public contract to confirm equal treatments to employees are foster doing the common job. In order to undertake supply chain management in an ethical manner, the supply management & purchasing professional would have a responsibility to be aware & underst& about an ethical concern related to respective filed & ultimately attempt to address issue area in a positive way. In the code of conduct on ethical business operation related to supply & to purchase activities, Angel Foods is recommended to establish ethical trading, sourcing, social accountability among the workforce, fair-trade & responsible auditing. Moreover, the professional in supply management & purchasing in the organization by engaging every stakeholder in the process can visibly endorse effectiveness in ethical policies. Such related actions by the company not only help it be responsible for its operational areas but also ensure that supply chain management is progressing without any breach of law or unethical business practices. 

Conclusion 

The assessment outlines an in-depth discussion on business operation & supplies chain management in respect to Modern Slavery Act. It is concluded that the slavery legislation needs companies irrespective of their size operating in Australia to report on their hard work to confirm there is not the existence of forced labour, slavery or trafficking in supply chain or business. Angle Foods Ltd’s supply chain executive has the responsibility to report against transparency in supply chain needs of the Modern Slavery Act. Transparency & due-diligence are crucial to eradicating modern slavery within the supply chain.