rights Miners tackle modern slavery

WHEN FORTESCUE PUBLISHED ITS MODERN SLAVERY STATEMENT IN DECEMBER 2022, IT BECAME THE LATEST MINING COMPANY TO REAFFIRM ITS COMMITMENT TO RESPECTING FUNDAMENTAL HUMAN RIGHTS.

“It isn’t a thing of the past.”

That is Fortescue executive chairman Andrew Forrest in a statement addressing modern slavery in the global resources industry.

“Modern slavery is one of the biggest and most complex human rights issues facing the world,” Forrest said.

“It is occurring in almost every country, with women and children continuing to be the most vulnerable.”

WHAT IS MODERN SLAVERY?

Modern slavery refers to a range of human rights violations. The term is used to describe situations where coercion, threats or deception are used to exploit people and deprive them of their freedom.

It includes trafficking in persons, slavery, servitude, forced marriage, forced labour, debt bondage, the worst forms of child labour, and deceptive recruiting for labour or services.

In the context of the modern resources sector, the push into new areas of mining may be inadvertently opening the doors to insidious labour practices around the world.

“The need to decarbonise means that the global energy mix is rapidly shifting,” KPMG purpose officer and partner in charge Richard Boele said. “This shift is creating increasing crossover between the resources and energy sectors in both their operations and supply chains.

“It’s in this context that companies must challenge their thinking on where they’ll find risk to people. Transition is creating new and emerging human rights and social risks that we have to identify and understand.”

According to the International Labour Organisation, latest estimations show that forced labour and forced marriage have increased significantly in the last five years.

The latest Global Estimates of Modern Slavery show 50 million people were living in modern slavery in 2021, of whom 28 million were in forced labour and 22 million trapped in forced marriage.

MAJOR MINERS’ STATEMENTS

Fortescue publishes a statement under Australia’s Modern Slavery Act 2018 each year, with the 2022 edition marking the fifth such publication.

The latest statement highlighted key actions taken during the 2021–22 financial year to combat modern slavery:

• Completion of a salient human rights risk assessment to identify areas with greatest potential to impact the human rights of people across Fortescue’s value chain

• Launch of a modern slavery procurement procedure to provide a framework for supplier screening

• Introduction of a mandatory online human rights training module for all employees

In the same way Boele highlighted decarbonisation as a risk area, Fortescue identified its global expansion into green energy as a potential risk, explaining that it could cause or contribute to modern slavery in countries with a high prevalence of the practice.

The report gave the example of a situation in which “employees or contractors were engaged in exploitative situations, or if our workforce, in their personal capacity, engaged in exploitation of the local community”.

“These risks are greater in countries that have a higher prevalence of modern slavery,” the report stated.

“In addition to in-country risk assessments, we are working to ensure human rights and modern slavery due diligence measures are implemented across the Fortescue Group.”

Fortescue is not the only miner to tackle the issue.

Glencore, IGO and AngloGold Ashanti have also released statements reaffirming their commitments to addressing modern slavery.

“Glencore is committed to preventing the occurrence of modern slavery and human trafficking in our operations and supply chains,” the company’s statement read.

Glencore’s report detailed the progress it made in 2021, including implementing a group social performance standard that requires industrial assets to develop a system to receive, investigate, respond to and provide remedy for social performance issues.

In AngloGold’s statement, the company said it recognised that there are risks it needs to monitor closely,

“particularly in respect of some of our developing-world operations, such as risks associated with local supply chains”.

“Like all major employers in economically underdeveloped regions, our operations are expected to prioritise local procurement to facilitate economic development,” the statement read.

“We recognise the requirement for methodical human rights due diligence in environments where these risks are pronounced.”

In IGO’s 2021 statement, the company said it would adopt a continuous review-and-improvement approach to its management of modern slavery risks, extending to how the company evaluates the effectiveness of its actions.

The company said it aimed to achieve several actions in FY22: