Australian Companies Lag in Modern Slavery Disclosure, Raising Compliance Concerns
The big picture: A new Monash University report reveals significant gaps in how Australia's largest companies disclose mechanisms for workers to report modern slavery concerns and how they remediate such issues.
Why it matters: This lack of transparency puts vulnerable workers at risk and could expose companies to new criminal offenses under proposed Australian federal government reforms.
Between the lines:
- Only 36% of assessment questions on grievance and remediation were addressed by companies.
- Just 10% of companies disclosed consulting affected stakeholders in designing grievance mechanisms.
- No company disclosed the average time taken to complete remediation.
Staffing & HR impact: HR and compliance teams must urgently review and strengthen their modern slavery disclosure practices to meet evolving regulatory expectations and protect their workforce.
The bottom line: Companies need to move beyond paper policies to implement transparent, trusted, and effective grievance and remediation systems.
