NAB Code of Conduct: Governance, Ethics, and Sustainability

Governance,
Ethics and
Sustainability

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NATIONAL AUSTRALIA BANK
CODE OF CONDUCT
OVERVIEW
National Australia Bank (NAB) is one of the four leading banking
corporations in Australia, and it has created a positive brand reputation in
the market due to its ethical leadership and focus on customer interest
(NAB, 2019a). This Code of Conduct is implemented by the company to
recognise its duties towards its stakeholders to make sure that their
interest is prioritised rather than profit maximisation in the organisation.
Through this Code, the company aims to address major issues that
adversely affect the interest of customers, employees and other
stakeholders of the company. It also focuses on ensuring that the rights of
individuals are not affected by its operations in a negative manner.
A: DISCRIMINATION
The first policy implementation in this Code is focused on eliminating
discrimination from the organisation and promotion of diversity to make
sure that the rights of individuals are not violated in the company.
Discrimination is referred to the unjust or prejudicial treatment of a person
or group of people on the grounds of individual differences such as race,
age, sex, caste, colour, religion, sexual preference, disability or others
(Pass, 2018). NAB is strictly against discrimination of any type in the
workplace, and it has implemented various policies which recognise the
duties of employees and managers to make sure that they did not engage
in discriminatory practices. Following are some key practices that are
adopted by NAB to eliminate discrimination from the organisation.
1. During the selection process of new job applicants, they are judged
based on their qualifications and abilities rather than individual
differences.

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2. NAB has adopted a diversity and inclusion policy under which it
focuses on hiring women, indigenous and other diverse people to
promote diversity in the workplace.
3. The promotion of employees is decided by more than one
individuals who evaluate their past performance and abilities rather
than individuals differences.
4. Training is given to employees so that they learn about key
differences between the cultures of other employees so that they
did not offend them mistakenly (Fsunion, 2014).
Along with these policies, NAB also focuses on ensuring that its employees
are prepared for diversity in the workplace and they embrace the
differences between each other. The company has also implemented
policies which are targeted towards incorporating legislative provisions
into the Code of the company to make sure that a legal obligation can be
imposed on employees. The company complies with policies such as the
Sex Discrimination Act 1984 (Cth), the Age Discrimination Act 2004 (Cth),
the Racial Discrimination Act 1975 (Cth) and the Disability Discrimination
Act 1992 (Cth) (Human Rights, 2019). Due to these provisions, the
company make sure that employees know their limits and they are aware
of key legal implications in case they engage in discriminatory behaviour
in the workplace.
B: EXPLOITATION
The interest of employees is given priority by NAB due to which the
company focuses on ensuring that its employees did not face exploitation
in the workplace. Exploitation is referred to the act of treating a person
unfairly in order to gain benefit from their work; it involves ill-treatment or
misuse of employees in an organisation by the senior level executives so
that they can gain personal advantage or benefit third parties (Knight and
Harvey, 2015). NAB has taken a stand against exploitation by
implementing strict policies in this Code that are targeted towards
eliminating exploitation from the workplace. As per these guidelines, the
actions of senior-level executives are monitored, and they can be