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Woolies reaffirms supply chain commitments

Woolies SupermarketWoolworths has​ ​reaffirmed its ​commitment​ ​to​ ​improving​ ​labour rights​ ​in​ ​fresh​ ​food​ ​supply​ ​chains after a small cohort of activist shareholders withdrew their motion over the potential “adverse human rights impacts” of the company’s operations at the retailer’s AGM today.

Woolworths said it’s continuing the review of its ethical sourcing practices and committed to working with the National Union of Workers (NUW) to identify and address human rights risks in fresh food supply chains in Australia.

“Our belief is that finding the right solution to address human rights risks in horticultural supply chains in Australia will be best achieved by working collaboratively with farmers, governments and unions,” said Woolworths Group CEO, Brad Banducci. “We recognise the current efforts of these stakeholders, including the NUW, and are committed to actively participating in a process to deliver genuine improvements and sensible and practical reform.”

Woolies has committed to implementating  of a pre-qualification programme for labour-hire providers to ensure that all labour providers who wish to operate in Woolworths’ direct fresh food supply chains comply with labour and human rights standards; and also provide access to an effective grievance mechanism to ensure that human rights violations are reported, investigated and remediated.

Also at today’s AGM, Banducci reiterated the conglomerate’s awareness “of the need to improve the performance of Big W for all of our stakeholders including our team of over 18,000 team members, suppliers and shareholders.”

“We have a new senior team and plan in place and have made some good early progress but it remains a very challenging sector and we expect that this journey will take time,” he said. “We are fortunate that we have a committed and passionate team, a good store network and a brand that is still well loved by our customers. We see significant opportunity to improve the performance of BIG W.”

In it’s latest trading update, the struggling discount department chain found comparable sales growth for the first time in several periods, with comparable growth adjusted for the timing of annual toy sales coming in at 2.1 per cent.

This story was first published on Inside Retail.

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