ANZ Efforts in Eliminating Modern Slavery

GFG acknowledges modern slavery remains a systemic concern and can take place in many forms in the supply chain of fashion industry. Building on our zero tolerance approach for any and all instances of modern slavery across our business, in June 2021, we published our first Modern Slavery Statement in ANZ, in compliance with the Australian Modern Slavery Act 2018, highlighting potential modern slavery risks in our operations and supply chain, our actions to address those risks as well as future plans for 2021.

Traceability is critical to having confidence in the human rights conditions in all tiers of our supply chain and transitioning in the materials used for our own-brand products, over which we have greater control, to be made from materials that are certified to robust industry standards supports us to accelerate this agenda. The GFG Sustainable Cotton Directive, developed in 2021, bans specific regions of concern, provides a traceability framework and sets the expectation of all cotton used for own brands of GFG to be more sustainably sourced and certified by 31 December 2025 at the latest. The preferred materials programme in ANZ advanced during the year, resulting in greater mitigation of noted risks, and 23% of the product coming from preferred sources.

Capacity building, policy development and operational risk assessments were also a key focus in ANZ. Building on training sessions with its commercial team and senior management in 2020, training on responsible purchasing practices was provided to the ownbrand team and broader modern slavery training to the Category Management, Risk and Procurement teams and its ownbrand suppliers.

Our third party brand partners also play a crucial role in our journey in eliminating modern slavery in supply chain. In addition to including comprehensive clauses relating to compliance with the prevailing laws related to modern slavery and supply chain transparency, in ANZ we engaged with our largest brands to identify and increase their capacity for improvements. Refresher training for third party brands on modern slavery risks and issues is planned for 2022, building on the training conducted in 2020.

Lastly, responding to the modern slavery risks which exist in our operations, in ANZ we continued to conduct due diligence of labour service providers in our fulfilment center in 2021. This entailed assessing these vendors for the controls they have in place to ensure people working on site in ANZ are employed in compliance with legal standards and GFG Guiding Principles for Recruitment & Employment of Labour Service Provider Staff. Additionally, ANZ and other GFG Regions completed a risk assessment of labour service providers including last mile delivery service providers this year.