Blundstone Australia Pty. Ltd. is committed to ensuring that people making its product are employed ethically and are free from exploitation. At a local level, this means that employment is provided that exceeds the minimum Government prescribed standard in the country of operation.
Blundstone takes a pro-active approach to satisfying itself that the standard is maintained. This is achieved through a variety of means:
- the maintenance of contracts with our suppliers that require third party accreditation and an associated audit regime in regard to employment standards;
- the contracts also stipulate that employees must be free to collectivise and for the collective to be able to represent the employees in negotiations in regard to employment conditions (in all cases, in practice this involves employees being union members);
- access to the reports provided to our suppliers by the third party standards accreditation agencies (generally this will be Government Departments of Labour or internationally renowned commercial specialists in the field) and to the follow up reporting in regard to any issues raised in the audit process;
- an on site Blundstone employed presence that ensures that work undertaken on our behalf is completed in the establishment covered by the independent auditing regime;
- the on site presence is also able to view the manner in which employees are treated by their employer at close hand;
- the understanding that, in all cases, people are employed in a market that values their skills resulting in the opportunity to find employment elsewhere in the event that they were dissatisfied with the employment being provided by our suppliers.
