It looks like our good friends over at nestle are not happy about being required to check into modern slavery practices within their supply chains. The argument is that these cumbersome regulations to curb slavery, trafficking and forced sexual servitude will result in them having to raise prices for customers. Personally if i had to choose between ending slavery and cheap products im not sure which i would choose. Where do our resident pardians stand on this issue?

https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/nestle-says-slavery-reporting-requirements-could-cost-customers-20180816-p4zy5l.html

One of the world's largest food and drink companies has warned proposed legislation requiring big business to report on their efforts to combat modern slavery could hit consumers' hip pockets.

Companies operating in Australia with an annual turnover of $100 million or more would be required to annually report on the risks of modern slavery within their business and the actions they've taken to address those risks under the federal government's draft Modern Slavery Bill 2018.

Nestle has warned customers could face additional costs if Australia requires companies to report on modern slavery risks.

The reports would have to cover issues related to human trafficking, slavery, sexual servitude and child labour within businesses' operations and supply chains.

Nestle, owner of more than 2000 brands in 189 countries, has told a senate committee that Australia's proposed mandatory reporting requirements could add "cost and time" to businesses and suppliers "which will need to be borne somewhere".

It should be incumbent on the government to demonstrate the need for and value of this legislation. If they can't articulate and illustrate how 1) slavery is a common problem in Australian company supply chains, and 2) how this particular legislation will address that, then they don't have much business passing it into law.

this is likely a scare tactic by Nestle. with the costs spread so vastly over so many products the consumer may not even really notice. an extra few cents on chocolate milk isnt something most people will write home about. and many consumers will be happy to pay for this cost, just like many are happy to pay more for "free trade" labelled products. It's Nestle that pays the largest cost, not just in dollars but in changing their procedures to report accurately with the least amount of disruption. and perhaps suppliers of raw materials to Nestle will lose even bigger, being less massive operations Nestle may put some of the documentation back on them to prove they dont use slave labor which would reflect poorly on Nestle.

Nestle... ugh. That's one company that needs to be broken up. Not surprised that they're trying to put a stop to legislation that would further showcase their abuses.

Nestle, P&G, Kraft, etc. they all figured it out. you cant be broken up for owning a monopoly of an industry if you just own 25% of all industries. GOTTEM!

only ones i havent worked with are Unilever and Associated British Foods. all the rest bring in steady cash.

Nestle is not opposed to curtailing slavery. Nestle does not want to staff entire teams dedicated to understanding the new law, teams to draw up processes and paperwork to enforce the new law, and teams to monitor and report on potential violations by businesses that they do not directly control.

In addition, they're no doubt leery about the potential PR, legal, and financial implications if they commit an incidental oversight or an infraction is committed somewhere down the supply chain that they have no realistic means of catching.

This is similar to regulations on AML. Most people recognize that AML is a far more prevalent and necessary evil to catch, so businesses are forced to bear the cost of implementation.

Nestle is likely to complain about any legislation that increases overhead, but the question to Australia is whether this is the least onerous and most effective way of combating slavery.

This post was edited by bogie160 on Feb 11 2020 01:21pm

The bold is just, literally perfect. If we have to tell you whether or not we use slavery to make our products it will raise costs!

you try tracking down literally tens of thousands of suppliers to guarantee no slavery was used in the production of every raw material you use for the price of free lol.