Modern slavery and human trafficking statement 2020/21
This statement covers the activities of Synnex Australia Pty Ltd ABN 40 052 285 882 (“Synnex”) for understanding and implementing actions to minimise and mitigate the risk of modern slavery and human trafficking in our operations and supply chain.
Introduction
This Modern Slavery Statement (“Statement”) in compliant with the Australia Modern Slavery Act 2018, covering the period from 1 July 2020 to 30 June 2021. The purpose of this statement is to outline our actions and approaches to ensure Synnex has sound and robust processes in place to detect and minimise the risk of modern slavery in our daily operations and supply chain. Synnex acknowledges that slavery and human trafficking occurs in many forms, such as slavery, human trafficking, forced labour, child labour, servitude, forced marriage, debt bondage and deceptive recruiting for labour or services.
Synnex is committed to conducting our business ethically and responsibly. We take ethical sourcing seriously. We embrace the commitment for fair and legitimate business interaction and respect the rights and dignity of all people, including internal employees and people impacted within our supply chain.
Our structure, operation and supply chain
Since our incorporation in Australia in 1997, Synnex has grown to become one of the largest ICT solutions aggregator in Australia. We work with over 80 ICT vendors, providing end-to-end IT products, cloud solutions and life cycle management services to over 6,000 channel partners. Synnex has over 495 employees with operations across Australia. Our headquarter is located in Melbourne, with offices in Sydney and Perth. As Synnex does not have any subsidiary, this statement covers the activities of Synnex only.
We believe the respect for human rights is a fundamental value to our customers, our business partners and the broader community. To prevent any possible human rights abuse, we monitor, manage and report progress on a range of indicators used to access the effectiveness of our responsibility towards modern slavery.
We have assessed our key business activities and supply chain as follows:
| Main business activities | Supply chain |
|---|---|
| Provision of ICT products and services, including but not limited to hardware, software, cloud solutions and lifecycle management services, to businesses or end customers. | Over 80 international and local vendors supplying ICT products, software, cloud solutions and services to Synnex for reselling purpose. |
| Business operations to support the daily operations of Synnex other than the supply of inventories and services for reselling purposes. |
|
Risk identification and our approach
In the 2020/21 reporting period, we undertook a review of the potential risks of modern slavery matters across our operations and supply chain, by reviewing three main aspects:
- Internal human resources
- External supply chain related to distribution business segment
- Other external supply chain related to daily operation.
During the assessment process, we considered risks that might pose and/or contribute directly to modern slavery practices, in accordance with the “Commonwealth Modern Slavery Act 2018 - Guidance for Reporting Entities” issued by Australian Government’s Department of Home Affairs.
Internal risk assessment – HR practice
In 2020/21, Synnex has an average of 495 employees - 73% permanent and 27% casual. When reviewing the internal risk for modern slavery matters, Synnex considers ourself to be relatively low risk. All employees, permanent or casual are employed in Australia. Our internal human resources policies protect them, and formal employment contracts are signed between Synnex and employees.
All employees recruited are individually assessed by our internal Human Resources (HR) department, according to our established recruitment policy. All employees sign an employment contract with Synnex and received formal induction training, which includes clear definition of their duties, rights and obligations. The HR department has documentation for ongoing review and procedures for the visa status management of non-Australian passport holders.
Given this, Synnex has identified that the internal operation has low or no risk of modern slavery, in any operational activities that are directly performed by Synnex’s employees and if risks exists, are fully covered by our internal processes.
External suppliers risk assessment
Through our Qualifying Supplier Program, we ensure all our suppliers are fully aware of our position over ethical business behaviour and zero tolerance over modern slavery practices. We achieve this by ensuring our Supplier Code of Conduct (SCC) has been delivered to our suppliers, and request for their acknowledgment by obtaining their confirmation in writing. The SCC is a key tool for preventing modern slavery in our supply chain, all forms of forced labour are banned in our SCC, including physical confinement in the work location, child labour, forced overtime and withholding of deposits or personal documents for employment.
External supply chain – distribution of IT products and services
Synnex’s major supply chain consists of over 80 ICT products and services suppliers. During the last reporting period, we focused on addressing the modern slavery risk with our top 10 suppliers. During 2020/21, we conducted a review of our top 10 suppliers and identified only one supplier change from last year’s top 10 list. From this supplier’s publicly corporate social responsibility statement, it stated that although it’s not a formal member of the Responsible Business Alliance (RBA), it voluntarily supports and follows “Code of Conduct – Responsible Business Alliance, RBA”. The RBA facilitate industry coalition standardises the social responsibility practices and enforcement collectively. It also updates and shares the best practices in identifying and mitigating modern slavery risk.
In addition, we extended the modern slavery assessment to another 10 major suppliers, who are multinational corporations with publicly assessable Modern Slavery Statements. All of them are members of the Responsible Business Alliance (RBA) and have adopted the RBA’s code for modern slavery risk assessment and audit procedures. As per risk and audit results disclosed in those 10 suppliers’ latest Modern Slavery Statement, there were no significant/high risk incidents reported.
External supply chain – daily operation
Other than suppliers for inventories and IT services under our distribution business, other divisions of the supply chain that support our daily operation includes courier services, utilities, rental services, and office supplies. When combining the purchases of inventories and IT services, the daily operation purchase accounted for approximately 1% of the total purchase during 2020/21. As most of the services obtained were produced domestically (courier service, utilities and rental service), this area is considered relatively low in modern slavery risk.
Our policies and procedures
We have formal policies in place to promote ethical and legally compliant business conduct and relationships. These policies contribute to our core value of “making a positive difference”. We believe in sustainable development and strive to conduct our business with uncompromising integrity and professionalism, including our commitment to preventing violation of human rights.
When procurement is made, the supplier must sign the confirmation for compliance of our SCC, which includes the terms of anti-modern slavery. We articulate our expectations to suppliers through our SCC, which is available on our website. All new suppliers added to our qualified supplier list are reviewed to ensure our modern slavery processes in place are complied with.
We have established reporting procedures and mechanisms for employees and external parties to report any concerns regarding unethical or illegal conduct. Employees can report to their manager, or if they wish to do so anonymously, can notify us through our whistleblower scheme by e-mail, phone or online portal.
Moving forward
Over the next reporting period, our key focus will be:
- Review and update our suite of risk-related policies and governance control measures.
- Extend the modern slavery assessment to rest of our suppliers
Our commitment to prevent modern slavery practices in our supply chain and internal operations are ongoing. We will continually review and improve on the measures we have established.
Approval
Preventing modern slavery and human rights abuse is consistent with the core values of Synnex.
This statement was approved by the Board of Directors of Synnex Australia Pty Ltd on 17 November 2021.
Kee Ong
CEO, Synnex Australia
