Modern slavery is first and foremost a risk to people.
Modern slavery also poses a significant legal and reputational risk to businesses and investors. In addition, organisations face the risk of scrutiny from consumers, the media, and other stakeholders, so need to be well armed both in terms of understanding their exposure to modern slavery, but also how they plan to manage that exposure.
The Modern Slavery Act 2018 applies to all Australian entities (including companies, partnerships and trusts), with an annual consolidated revenue of at least $100 million. The Act requires those entities to report annually on the risks of modern slavery in their operations and supply chains and the actions taken to address those risks. Modern slavery statements are due to be lodged by 30 June of this year.
Frontier has developed a quantitative tool to help asset owners gain a clearer understanding of where modern slavery risk may lie across their listed equity portfolios, both at the security and fund manager level, highlighting the degree and number of instances where these risks may be present. Our tool screens equity portfolios on a bottom-up basis, to identify which of the regions and sectors most susceptible to modern slavery risk are present within portfolios. The reporting produced can be used to form the basis of, or at the very least, support the required modern slavery statements. Beyond this, our modern slavery tool can help investment teams and fund trustees plan a path to address this risk, engage meaningfully with fund managers, and assist in monitoring progress over time in a measurable and reportable way, year on year.
Click here to learn more about our modern slavery tool. If you have questions, the Chair of our Responsible Investment Group, Joey Alcock, would be delighted to speak with you, or members of your team, about the tool, or indeed about any aspect of modern slavery.
