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Vicinity Centres rolls out first Modern Slavery Statement

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Property group Vicinity Centres has released its first Modern Slavery Statement on how it is integrating ethical working standards across its business to help protect its employees.

Vicinity’s statement is part of the group’s broader sustainability strategy.

The actions outlined in the statement build on steps already taken by Vicinity to drive its teams, including its 3,600 suppliers across Australia, to effectively mitigate human rights and modern slavery risks through process, policy and reporting mechanisms.

Vicinity CEO and Managing Director Grant Kelley said sustainability is fundamental to the long-term performance of their business.

“We recognise identifying, managing and mitigating potential modern slavery risks in our operations and supply chain is important for security holders, our teams, customers and the communities where we operate,” Kelley said.

“We are already taking proactive steps to identify, report and address modern slavery, with a focus on higher risk industries such as cleaning and security, and our first Modern Slavery Statement captures this work to encourage continued progress,” he continued.

Last year, a review of national procurement was conducted to understand how modern slavery risks and broader environmental, social and governance (ESG) risks could be considered and effectively managed in the business’ supply chain.

This resulted in the development of a Responsible Procurement Action Plan and identified initiatives to ensure ESG risks are appropriately managed in the group’s supply chain.

“We have introduced the use of a supplier sustainability assessment to review ESG practices and reinforce clauses in maintenance service agreements which prohibit subcontracting without prior approval, allow us to conduct routine supplier audits and require payment of workers in compliance with modern awards,” said Meredith Banks, Head of Sustainability, Vicinity.

“Our team has also engaged with strategic operational suppliers to discuss and monitor compliance and we conduct an annual audit program of cleaning and security suppliers through independent workplace relations experts,” she said.

As Vicinity progresses its plan to address modern slavery risks, its teams will continue to collaborate with suppliers to address risks and further refine and expand the business’ evaluation mechanisms.

Source: Vicinity Centres

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