CIB100

ASSIGNMENT 2: BUSINESS SUBMISSION

SEMESTER 2 2014

NAME: A Student

STUDENT NUMBER: 12345678

STUDENT EMAIL: A.Student@student.curtin.edu.au

TUTOR: Chris Bright

TUTORIAL TIME: Friday 10-12

COMPANY: Telstra

WORD COUNT: 1148 (excluding references)

A. Student

DIRECTOR OF CORPORATE COMMUNICATIONS

TELSTRA CORPORATION

OCTOBER 7 2014
OUR COMMITMENT
As one of Australias leading telecommunications companies, with over 36 000
employees and the countrys most extensive mobile network, we at Telstra believe it
is our duty to set the standard of corporate social responsibility, both in our industry
and beyond. We are proud signatories of the United Nations Global Compact and
endeavour to continually maintain, improve and expand our CSR programs to
adhere to the Compacts principles and fulfil the social contract we hold with our
stakeholders.

OBJECTIVES
In this submission we will put forward our recommendations for obtaining compliance
with the Global Compact principles two and seven. We will also outline our current
efforts in these areas, proposed benchmarks, and the impact our recommendations
will have on the stakeholders of our company should we choose to implement them.

PRINCIPLE 2
Business should make sure that they are not complicit in human
rights abuses. UN 2014

PRINCIPLE 7
Businesses should support a precautionary approach to
environmental challenges. UN 2014

Through this submission we hope to encourage Telstra to take a proactive approach

to CSR and improve our business practice to further abide by the principles of the
Global Compact. We are well placed to achieve this, as we have been a member of
the Compact since 2011. We are also part of Australias first Human Rights Working
Group for Business (set up by this network in 2010 and run in partnership with the
Australian Human Rights Commission), thus giving us significant experience and
insight into managing satisfactory human rights business practices.

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HUMAN RIGHTS POLICIES
PAST AND PRESENT
As a significant portion of our business activities involves construction and
production, we are conscious of the need to source ethically-produced materials and
parts for these processes.

We apply stringent risk-assessment standards to every supplier and industry partner

before we commit to work with them. Our assessment process includes an
inspection of the premises and a thorough examination of employment conditions
including breaks and leave, workload, health and safety, workplace bullying, unions
and equal opportunity (Supply Chain Standards 2014).

Despite these measures, we have had previous issues with the working conditions of
our suppliers. In 2012 it was found that the factories of one of our partners in China
harboured brutal sweatshop conditions, according to the Institute for Global Labour
and Human Rights (2012). In its report, the Institute found that this was because
managers tended to temporarily improve their premises and coerce their employees
to lie about their treatment prior to inspections. While this was certainly a regrettable
incident, it has allowed us to learn from our mistakes and improve our partnership
selection standards. In 2013 we introduced our Supplier Code of Conduct which
outlines the standards required to conduct business with Telstra and ensures that
social concerns are an important part of our selection process (Telstra Annual
Report 2013).

At Telstra, we believe that evaluating the working conditions of all business partners
in this way is the bare minimum required to eliminate complicity in human rights
issues. We present our Supplier Code of Conduct (Appendix A) as a suitable
reference for a benchmark standard of supplier conditions.

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FUTURE
We currently work with our suppliers at a managerial level to establish better
practices to meet and exceed this code but what about the workers themselves?
With this in mind, and to aid in the fulfilment of principle two, we have devised the
following recommendation:

The development of Supplier Liaison Teams in each country that

a) a significant number of suppliers are based in; and
b) has limited employee protection (in the form of unions, etc), and is
therefore of high risk.

These teams would be in charge of

a) carrying out ad-hoc inspections;
b) gaining the trust of employees to obtain honest feedback; and
c) managing a support hotline to this end.

STAKEHOLDER IMPACT
Partner employees will have improved working conditions. Increased wages
and reduced working hours will benefit their local communities (and their
economies).
Partner companies will be held directly accountable for the treatment of their
employees and will need to improve or risk losing business.
Customers can be assured that their products are made by workers with fair
conditions, which will lead to greater trust and respect for the company.

RISKS AND CHALLENGES

While these programs will incur significant financial costs, we believe it is
necessary as it is no longer enough to assess high-risk suppliers infrequently
and from the other side of the world.
Individual employees may find relocation challenging in this case we
propose employment on a temporary basis.
Difficult to support the workers of our partners to ensure their wellbeing
without manager interference.
Lack of local knowledge it may be necessary to hire support staff from the
area for consultation on legal/cultural issues.

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ENVIRONMENTAL POLICIES

PAST AND PRESENT

At Telstra, we pride ourselves on our significant and ongoing environmental
contribution in all areas of our business. As stated in our Sustainability Report
(Telstra 2013), we are achieving compliance with the Global Compact by identifying
and reducing our (and our suppliers) impact on the environment through key areas
such as carbon emissions, paper wastage and e-waste. Further information is
available in our Environmental Stewardship and Environmental Impact
sustainability reports.

Figure 1: A summary of our environmental achievements (Environmental Impact 2013).

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Our focus on incorporating effective environmental policies throughout our business
has taught us that there are always ways to increase our sustainability; especially in
terms of principle seven, which involves a precautionary approach. Many of our
current measures are implemented after the event: recycling occurs after wastage
and carbon offsetting after emissions. We want to improve this by instigating pre-
emptive measures, especially in the area of construction. This has a direct impact on
the environment through erosion, the disturbance of flora and fauna, and pollution
from machinery (Guerin 2010).

FUTURE
We recommend the following to help achieve compliance with principle seven:

Work with specialists to develop standards of environmentally-friendly

construction that can be applied to the building of all company factories,
offices, etc. These will include:
a) Sustainable construction materials
b) Efficient design
c) Environmentally-friendly processes to minimise pollution during
construction
d) Avoiding environmental damage by building on land that has already
been cleared, etc.

STAKEHOLDER IMPACT
Benefits local communities by using less resources
Environmental interest groups and local communities will appreciate reduced
pollution and preservation of local flora and fauna
Sourcing local construction materials benefits local suppliers
Acts as a symbol/demonstration of environmental efforts, thus improving
company image to consumers

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RISKS AND CHALLENGES
Significant research and development costs
Possible high cost of land
Time commitment

CONCLUSION
Today, the onus is on businesses to recognise and uphold societal values and thus
fulfil their social contract (Luetkenhorst 2004). We hope you will regard this
submission as a set of useful guidelines to help achieve this, as well as to create
positive change that benefits not only stakeholders but the world as a whole.

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APPENDICES

Appendix A:

Telstra Corporation Limited. 2014. Telstra Supplier Code of Conduct. Telstra

Corporation Limited.
http://www.telstra.com.au/uberprod/groups/webcontent/@corporate/@aboutus/docu
ments/document/uberstaging_255984.pdf

REFERENCE LIST

Australian Human Rights Commission. 2010. 2010 Media Release: Business Takes
up Human Rights. Australian Human Rights Commission.
http://www.humanrights.gov.au/news/media-releases/2010-media-
releasebusiness-takes-human-rights.

Guerin, Turlough. 2010. Working with Customers and Using ICT to Reduce
Carbon. Telstra Corporation Limited.
http://pdf.aigroup.asn.au/environment/Sustainability_Forum_Turlough_Guerin_
Telstra.pdf.

Kernaghan, Charles. 2012. Telstra/Australia Takes the High Road: Pulls Sweatshop
VTech Phones from Store Shelves. Institute for Global Labour and Human
Rights. http://www.globallabourrights.org/alerts/telstraaustralia-takes-the-high-
road-pulls-sweatshop-vtech-phones-from-store-shelves.

Luetkenhorst, Wilfried. 2004. "Corporate Social Responsibility and the Development

Agenda: The Case for Actively Involving Small and Medium
Enterprises." Intereconomics 39 (3): 157-166.
http://search.proquest.com/docview/211615701?accountid=10382.

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Telstra Corporation Limited. 2013. Environmental Impact: Reducing our
Environmental Impact. Telstra Corporation Limited.
http://www.telstra.com.au/uberprod/groups/webcontent/@corporate/@about/do
cuments/document/uberstaging_244378.pdf.

Telstra Corporation Limited. 2014. Environmental Stewardship: Better

Environmental Outcomes. Telstra Corporation Limited.
http://www.telstra.com.au/aboutus/download/document/bigger-picture-2014-
sustainability-report---environmental-stewardship.pdf.

Telstra Corporation Limited. 2014. Supply Chain Standards. Telstra Corporation

Limited. http://www.telstra.com.au/abouttelstra/download/document/telstra-
supply-chain-standards.pdf.

Telstra Corporation Limited. 2013. Telstra Annual Report 2013 Sustainability.

http://telstra.interactiveinvestorreports.com/annualreport2013/responsible-
business#sustainability.

United Nations. 2014. United Nations Global Compact. Accessed September 28,
http://www.unglobalcompact.org/index.htm.

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