Property and construction businesses play a crucial role in combatting modern slavery in their workplaces. They do this by listening, responding as well as remediating harm to people across business operations and supply chains. This is part of the corporate responsibility to respect human rights.
Last Friday, on the International Day for the Abolition of Slavery, the Property Council released ‘Remediating Modern Slavery in Property and Construction: A Practical Guide for Effective Human Rights Remediation’.
Building on the Property Council’s Modern Slavery Working Group’s focus on its supplier engagement platform and guide to grievance mechanisms, remediating modern slavery was identified as a priority area of members and their suppliers requiring a collaborative effort.
The Property Council appointed KPMG Banarra to create this guide which offers practical information and real-world insights into modern slavery remediation. This guide will help businesses better address modern slavery, particularly within the property and construction sector in Australia.
Together, human rights grievance mechanisms and modern slavery remediation are critical to leading modern slavery practice. Remediation is important because some sectors of the property and construction industry have a heightened risk of modern slavery and remediation helps to address and stop the cycle of exploitation.
The role of business in remediating modern slavery is more important than ever. Implementing remediation processes help business demonstrate a respect for rights-holders, and a modern slavery commitment that both satisfies and goes beyond regulatory compliance.
You can read the guide here: Remediating Modern Slavery in Property and Construction: A Practical Guide for Effective Human Rights Remediation.
This guide should be read in conjunction with Listening and Responding to Modern Slavery in Property and Construction: A Practical Guide for Effective Human Rights Grievance Mechanisms, published by the Property Council and KPMG in July 2022.
The Property Council supplier platform homepage: https://campaign.propertycouncil.com.au/supplierplatform.
The Property Council Supplier platform reporting portal: https://propertycouncil.informed365.com/.