Integrity and respect are core to how we operate, and we strive to perform our work ethically and responsibly. We are guided in how we operate by the values in our Charter and have robust governance structures, group policies, standards and processes to uphold these values and ensure we are continuously looking for ways to improve.
Our Code of Business Conduct
Our Code of Business Conduct is our guide to doing the right thing. It continues to evolve with us and has recently been updated to strengthen our culture of safety and emphasise our strong position on rights of First Nations Peoples and cultural heritage, human rights, modern slavery and workplace sexual harassment. Our Code highlights everyone’s authority, and obligation, to stop work to protect our people, the environment and Indigenous cultural heritage.
It also emphasises importance of speaking up if you see something wrong. We are committed to ensuring everyone can raise concerns freely, without fear, and that any concerns are dealt with swiftly, fairly and confidentially using our confidential, anonymous Speak Up Service. Our commitment to supporting and protecting people who speak up is also reinforced in our updated Whistleblower Policy.
Prioritising workplace health and safety
The health and safety of our people is our priority, always. We maintain a relentless focus on preventing fatalities and serious injuries. By operating responsibly, continuously improving our practices and leveraging smart technology, we are helping enable safer environments for our people, customers, business partners, and those who live and work in our communities of operation.
Our Safety, Health and Environment Policy affirms our aspiration to avoid harm, empower our people to perform their tasks safely and responsibly, and continuously improve our performance. In response to incidents in FY2021 and FY2022 we are undertaking a detailed review of key controls in our Major Hazard Management program and are investigating to understand and address the causes of incident and injury.
Mental and physical wellbeing is critical for our people to thrive, and our employee engagement survey has been updated to include leading indicators on mental health and wellbeing to ensure we prioritise progress in these areas. We have also reviewed our risk assessment tools to identify and assess psychosocial factors in the workplace and ensure we are addressing areas of increased risk.
Enhancing product security
As a manufacturer of commercial explosives and blasting initiating systems, we have specific responsibilities to ensure we partner with and sell to organisations that will use our products for their intended purpose. We also have a responsibility to eliminate or minimise any risks to safety, health, or the environment across the lifecycle of our products and services.
We take our product security responsibilities seriously and strive to be champions of a safe and secure value chain. We select our partners following detailed due diligence covering security across the product lifecycle, from transport to storage and their final end-use.
We are implementing track and trace in line with our product stewardship. This technology enables higher accuracy inventory control and will allow us to provide detailed information to authorities in the event of lost or stolen product, or product recovered in the hands of unauthorised persons.
Respecting and upholding human rights
We are committed to respecting and upholding the human rights of our people, and those who may be impacted by our operations and business activities. The mining and metals industry faces increased scrutiny over its human rights obligations and approaches, and Orica is working to meet stakeholder expectations and support the industry to raise human rights protections and processes.
Our approach to respecting human rights is guided by internationally recognised standards such as the UN Declaration of Human Rights, the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, and the International Labour Organisation’s (ILO) Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at work. Our approach is embedded within our Charter, our Code of Business Conduct, risk management approach and organisational policies.
Protecting cultural heritage and enhancing engagement with First Nations people
Our operations can impact First Nations Peoples and areas of significant cultural heritage. We continue to work collaboratively with our customers to protect cultural heritage in Australia and internationally and empower our employees to stop work at mine sites if they have concerns around the risk of cultural heritage impact. There is much to learn and improve and this a growing area of focus for Orica.
In FY2021 we developed our First Nations Engagement and Cultural Heritage Roadmap following a third-party assessment of our First Nations engagement and cultural heritage management, benchmarked against the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and external stakeholder expectations.
We are paving the groundwork for our engagement initiatives, including the drafting of our first Reconciliation Action Plan (‘RAP’) in association with Reconciliation Australia. A Reflect RAP is the first stage in an organisation’s reconciliation journey and allows Orica to spend time developing relationships with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander stakeholders, exploring our spheres of influence, outlining our vision for reconciliation and establishing meaningful actions around the pillars of Respect, Relationships and Opportunities for participation for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples.
Addressing modern slavery
We have a responsibility to understand and address modern slavery risks in our supply chain as well as our operations.
Addressing modern slavery requires ongoing, dedicated and collaborative effort from many stakeholders including governments, non-government organisations and of course businesses. We continue to strengthen our approach to managing our modern slavery risk across our operations and supply chain, but recognise there is much more to do.
We continue to enhance our modern slavery management program and deepen our understanding of incoming global legislative changes, trends, and their implications for our business. Recently, we have enhanced the human rights due diligence approach in our operational activity, including reviewing our current approach, identifying gaps and opportunities, and delivering processes and tools that support understanding and human rights due diligence across our business. For more information, refer to our Modern Slavery Statement.
The Norwegian Transparency Act entered into force on 1 July 2022 (the Act). The purpose of the Act is to promote businesses respect for fundamental human rights and decent working conditions and ensure public access to information. The Act requires companies to conduct due diligence assessments to identify actual or potential negative impacts on fundamental human rights and decent working conditions in their own operations and in their supply chain. Orica Norway AS is covered by the Act and provides its statement in accordance with the requirements under the Act - a copy can be found here.