What is a Modern Slavery Statement?

A Modern Slavery Statement is a public declaration by an organisation about its efforts to identify and prevent modern slavery in its operations and supply chains. It outlines measures taken to mitigate the risk of modern slavery and any actions planned for the future. It aims to increase transparency and accountability, promote ethical and sustainable practices, and contribute to the global effort to eradicate modern slavery.

Publishing our First Modern Slavery Statement

As a company committed to fulfilling our purpose of creating solutions for a healthier world, we aspire to a future where such statements are no longer necessary. Nonetheless, we remain committed to ensuring to the best of our ability that our business practices do not contribute to modern slavery.

Our Modern Slavery Statement adheres to the Modern Slavery Act 2018 (Cth) in Australia. It encompasses the structure, operations, and supply chain of Team Medical Supplies in Australia as of June 30, 2022, and outlines our focus and actions to prevent modern slavery.

Supplying Medical Products

Providing essential medical products like PPE can increase challenges and risks across a business, particularly those related to Modern Slavery. In today's world, the supply of such products is crucial to the daily operations of most companies, regardless of their size. As a result, there is a growing focus on the materials used and the conditions in which these products are manufactured.

Team Medical Supplies recognises these challenges and is dedicated to addressing them by collaborating with our partners to demonstrate ongoing improvements. We remain committed to mitigating these risks and working towards sustainable solutions.

Assessing Supplier Risk

In FY21, we took our first formal steps to address modern slavery by conducting a supplier assessment focusing on the human rights risks in our supply chain. We used data from Social Hotspots and the Walk Free Foundation to evaluate country, category, and dependency risks among our top 103 suppliers based on spend. Our findings showed that Team Medical Supplies has moderate exposure to modern slavery in the countries where our tier one suppliers are located.

While the majority of our suppliers are located in Australia, we acknowledge the potential risks of modern slavery in countries where it is more prevalent, such as China, Malaysia, Pakistan, South Korea, and Honduras. We also recognise that some of our suppliers may have their headquarters in Australia, but the products we source from them could be manufactured in other countries, leading to potential modern slavery risks further down the supply chain.

Footnote: The Australian Border Force (ABF) publishes all statements that are approved and signed. This means that the publication of a statement on the Online Register does not necessarily mean the statement is compliant. This is to maximise transparency and ensure entities are publicly accountable for their actions to combat modern slavery. The published statement is based on the structure, operations, and supply chain of the Team Medical Supplies business in Australia as of June 30, 2022.