Human rights

Under the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, businesses are responsible for respecting human rights.

We conduct ongoing human rights due diligence across our operations and business relationships to help us identify, assess, mitigate and remediate where we are responsible for any involvement in human rights risks.

While we work to respect the rights of all stakeholders, we particularly focus our efforts on those people most vulnerable to harm, marginalised or at-risk groups, including Indigenous, Traditional and Tribal Peoples. Our human rights due diligence includes Human Rights Impact Assessments, Human Rights Risk Self-assessments and supplier human rights assessments.

Key areas of human rights risk include:

• Workplace health, safety and labour conditions, including freedom from slavery, rights to freedom of association and collective bargaining;
• Equality and non-discrimination, including gender equality, inclusion and diversity and transformation in South Africa;
• Access to water and sanitation;
• Impacts of security services on human rights; and
• Impacts on the rights of communities that live near our operations, including Indigenous, Traditional and Tribal Peoples.

Respecting human rights and addressing the risks of modern slavery across our operations and supply chains is not only the right thing to do, it’s fundamental to the way we do business. We expect our people and our business partners to comply with lawful business practices and applicable South32 policies, standards, procedures and processes, as relevant to the work they are performing for us, including our approach to modern slavery.

Our activities to manage the risk of modern slavery across our supply chain are provided in our annual Modern Slavery Statement in response to the Australian Modern Slavery Act 2018 (Cth) and the United Kingdom’s Modern Slavery Act 2015.

Read more about our stance against modern slavery here.

Our approach to responsible sourcing is built on a partnership model with our suppliers that aims to minimise health, safety, environmental, human rights, and other social risks. We aim to work only with suppliers with strong values and standards of conduct and that share our commitment to lawful business practices. Our expectations of suppliers are outlined in our Code of Business Conduct (Code) and Sustainability and Business Conduct - Minimum Supplier Requirements. Risk assessment and tiering tools help us understand supplier risks and guide us in the implementation of an appropriate supplier management approach. We work with our Business Integrity team and other experts to identify supplier risks and opportunities and establish evaluation and due diligence criteria, as well as risk-based control activities. These inform our management approach, with specific requirements agreed with suppliers and integrated into supplier management plans.

• FY23 Conflict Minerals Statement
• FY23 Modern Slavery Statement

At South32, we are united by our belief that everyone should go home safe and well, every day.

Read more about our commitment to the Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights and our approach to human rights and security practices here.

Our people are supported and encouraged to speak up when our values and Code are not being followed. Anyone can report a business conduct concern, anonymously if preferred, using our confidential and independently administered EthicsPoint reporting hotline.

We are committed to providing accessible and safe grievance and redress channels for stakeholders to raise complaints about human rights, and where we identify that we have caused or contributed to an adverse human rights impact, we will provide for or cooperate in its remediation through legitimate processes.

Find out more about our Speak Up policy here.

We align with relevant labour relations laws and regulations, including those relating to working hours, working conditions, entitlements to minimum wages and the right to choose unions or association representatives. Our minimum requirements for suppliers state that wages and benefits (including overtime) paid for a standard working week, must satisfy, at a minimum, national legal standards or local industry benchmarks. We work with reputable recruitment agencies and pay for the cost of recruitment activities.