Chemist Warehouse

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Chemist Warehouse Sustainability Actions

Reported low ESG risk

Sustainalytics, an ESG research firm that scores how well companies manage environmental, social, and governance risks, gave the wider company a score of 15.4 in the low-risk range. That means the business was seen as facing relatively lower ESG risk than many peers in its sector, based on the data available to the rater. This is a third-party assessment, not a company claim.

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Advanced packaging performance

The company’s wider group received a packaging performance level of 3, called Advanced, in APCO’s annual reporting. APCO, the Australian Packaging Covenant Organisation, is a not-for-profit group that tracks how members are improving packaging and moving toward a circular economy, which means keeping materials in use for longer and reducing waste. This suggests the business has made some progress on packaging management.

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Back-pay for worker training

In 2016, the company was ordered to back-pay more than $3.5 million to workers after mandatory online training was done in their own time. The case covered 5,976 employees, or almost two-thirds of the chain’s workforce at the time. The issue came after a Fair Work Ombudsman audit, which is an official workplace compliance check in Australia.

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Advertising breaches upheld

Ad Standards upheld complaints about the company’s advertising in 2015 and again in 2020. Ad Standards is the body that reviews whether ads follow Australian advertising codes. The complaints were later followed by the ads being changed or removed. In 2021, the Therapeutic Goods Administration also issued infringement notices over alleged unlawful advertising of a complementary medicine.

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Modern slavery disclosure rated low

A Human Rights Law Centre review of modern slavery statements rated the company’s disclosure quality in the 31-40% range. Modern slavery statements are public reports that explain how a business checks for forced labour and other serious worker abuse in its supply chain, which is the network of suppliers and makers behind products. The score suggests the disclosure was relatively weak compared with the best reports in the review.

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No tax paid in 2019-20

Australian Tax Office data showed the company paid no tax in Australia in 2019-20. That does not automatically mean wrongdoing, because companies can have legitimate reasons for paying no income tax in a given year. Still, the record is part of the public ESG picture and may raise questions for readers looking at tax transparency.

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