Lessons from a pickers and packers workers’ forum
Summary
Understanding labour conditions and promoting the rights of workers continues to be an important part of our stewardship activity, with a particular focus on improving conditions in Australia’s fresh food supply chain.
A key principle of IFM Investors Responsible Investment Charter is to protect the rights of working people. Following on from our direct engagement with both Wesfarmers and Woolworths, we recently participated in a ‘pickers and packers’
workers forum in Shepparton, Victoria, in May 2019. The forum, organized by the National Union of Workers, heard from approximately 100 permanent and contract workers. Workers shared insights and concerns relating to labour rights issues from
their experiences in farms and warehouses across Victoria.
IFM Investors continues to promote transparency and improved human rights for workers. Specifically, we continue to advocate for major supermarket companies, major growers, unions and community groups to work together to develop a pre-qualification
process for contract labour hire firms supplying workers to the agricultural supply chain.
Principle 6 of the IFM Responsible Investment Charter states: ‘Profit is possible without exploitation’.
Chris Newton, Executive Director, Responsible Investment
More broadly, as a large shareholder in the Australian marketplace, with significant positions in many listed companies, we believe it is important to take an active stance on ESG issues. Accordingly, we are careful to exercise our proxy voting
rights and to engage with listed companies to bring about effective and valuable change.
About the author
Executive Director, Responsible Investment
Chris Newton
Joined in 2016
Chris manages a team of responsible investment specialists that work closely with our investment teams to enhance responsible investment strategies and support the ESG needs of our investors. He ensures that responsible investment considerations are embedded in IFM Investors’ investment, asset management and reporting frameworks, benchmarked against global best practice. Chris is a member of the Principles for Responsible Investment’s Infrastructure Workstream and Advisory Committee. He has experience across government, community and private sectors, and has specialist skills in finance, policy development, social impact and business strategy. Prior to joining IFM Investors, Chris was Head of Social Innovation and Development at Australia Post, responsible for providing insights on business and community needs to develop new services that deliver both social outcomes and commercial returns. He joined Australia Post after serving as Principal Adviser to the Premier of Victoria on economic and infrastructure policy, including the policy agenda on climate change and the delivery of the state budget. He has also previously held roles at Transurban, Deloitte, the Office of the Treasurer of Victoria, ANZ and AMP.
Bachelor of Commerce (Murdoch University), MBA (Melbourne Business School), Graduate Diploma in Applied Finance (FINSIA), Graduate Certificate in International Development (RMIT University).