Modern Slavery Statement
Reporting Period 1 July 2023 to 30 June 2024
ABOUT US
The George Institute for Global Health (ABN 90 085 953 331) (The George Institute) is a leading independent global medical research institute established and headquartered in Sydney, Australia with major centres in China, India and the UK, and an international network of experts and collaborators.
Our mission is to improve the health of millions of people worldwide, particularly those living in disadvantaged circumstances, by challenging the status quo and using innovative approaches to prevent and treat non-communicable diseases and injury. The George Institute, together with its subsidiaries, employs over 700 employees globally.
The George Institute conducts its operations with integrity, credibility, social responsibility and accountability. With the mission of improving the health of millions of people worldwide, The George Institute is committed to acting ethically and with integrity in all its business dealings and relationships, including ensuring modern slavery is not occurring in its own business or supply chains.
The George Institute is the reporting entity for the purposes of the Modern Slavery Act 2018 (Cth), having met the reporting threshold in the reporting period.
OUR SUPPLY CHAINS
The George Institute engages with small and medium size suppliers for the majority of our local supplies and requirements (for example office supplies and equipment), whilst we rely on large multi-national suppliers for finance and technology infrastructure and services globally.
While our direct involvement does not extend to high-risk activities such as building construction, corporate cleaning and maintenance, we have identified primary operational risks related to on-site cleaning and maintenance services. These areas pose an increased risk of modern slavery, particularly for low-skilled workers.
We engage professional companies for these services and require them to sign-off that they comply with meeting modern slavery legislation. This includes performing due diligence checks, imposing contractual clauses where applicable, and verifying whether they have a published modern slavery policy or statement.
We are not aware, or have been made aware, of any activities in our business or supply chain that would give concern or risk in relation to modern slavery and consider the risk of modern slavery within our business to be low.
OUR POLICIES
We have a number of internal policies to ensure our operations are conducted with integrity, credibility, social responsibility and accountability. These include:
- Modern Slavery Policy - Our Modern Slavery Policy sets clear expectations of zero-tolerance towards modern slavery and includes systems and controls to ensure modern slavery is not taking place in our business nor supply chain.
- Recruitment and Selection Policy & Procedure - We maintain a robust recruitment process in recruiting talented people to join our organisation, including conducting eligibility checks to safeguard against human trafficking and forced labour.
- Due Diligence - We require new suppliers to confirm they adhere to the Modern Slavery Act and have processes in place to combat modern slavery risk.
- Whistleblower Policy - Our Whistleblowing Policy provides a platform for our employees and external persons to report any concerns or suspicion of modern slavery in our business or supply chains in an anonymous manner without fear of reprisals.
CURRENT REPORTING PERIOD
With the enactment of the Modern Slavery Act, we have implemented the following measures:
- all new staff are required to read and understand our core policies, including the Code of Conduct and Modern Slavery Policy to ensure they are aware of their legal, regulatory and compliance responsibilities. All policies are readily accessible on our local intranet;
- we have published our Modern Slavery Statement on our website.
- we have an e-learning course on modern slavery for new and existing staff.
- all new suppliers are required to confirm they are not aware of any modern slavery in their business or supply chain and adhere to local modern slavery laws;
- we incorporate anti-modern slavery clauses in supplier contracts where appropriate.
- we have a Whistleblower Policy and external hotline available for staff and external parties.
EVALUATION PROCESS
We continue to monitor the effectiveness of processes to address modern slavery risks at The George Institute. We do this by:
- consulting and gathering annual feedback from:
- our Finance team on the conduct of due diligence checks on service providers using the Modern Slavery Checklist;
- our Legal team on the implementation of anti-modern slavery clauses in our supply contracts; and
- our HR team on practices and checks to prevent modern salary risks in the recruitment process;
- gathering feedback and obtaining annual attestation on implementation of the measures from division heads before presenting the annual Modern Slavery Statement to the Board of Directors each year.
Based on these actions, we will adapt and strengthen our actions to continually improve our response to mitigating modern slavery risk.
CONFIRMATION
At the end of reporting period 2023/24 we confirm:
- we did not identify any instances of modern slavery risk in our operations and our suppliers.
- we did not receive any complaints through our Whistleblower hotline in relation to modern slavery risk
CONSULTATION PROCESS
The George Institute as the holding company shares common policies and processes across its subsidiaries. Senior staff and the Executive Risk Committee participated in the development of the Modern Slavery Policy and associated procedures.
OUR PLANS FOR 2024/2025
During the next reporting period (2024/2025) we will continue to monitor and review our modern slavery due diligence on staff recruitment and procurement of goods and services.
This Statement was approved by our Board of Directors on 30 August 2024.