Analysis of Governance, Ethics, and Sustainability in 7-Eleven's Code

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of 7-Eleven's Code of Conduct, focusing on governance, ethics, and sustainability principles. It examines the company's core values and guiding principles, emphasizing integrity, honesty, and fairness. The report delves into specific policies addressing discrimination, exploitation, and corruption, highlighting the company's commitment to a safe and ethical work environment. It details whistleblower protections, including the Treasury Laws Amendment (Whistleblowers) Bill 2017, and outlines enforcement mechanisms for non-compliance. The report also explores 7-Eleven's responsibilities towards financial markets and shareholders, emphasizing compliance with relevant legislation. Furthermore, the report analyzes the company's approach to dishonest and fraudulent behavior, and how it addresses and responds to such issues. The report concludes with an overview of compliance measures and the importance of adhering to the Code of Conduct. The analysis includes references to key legislation such as the Fair Work Act 2009 and the Corporations Act 2001.

Running head: GOVERNANCE, ETHICS AND SUSTAINABILITY
Governance, Ethics and Sustainability
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Table of Contents
About our code of conduct..............................................................................................................2
Our core values................................................................................................................................2
Our principles..................................................................................................................................2
Discrimination.................................................................................................................................3
Exploitation......................................................................................................................................4
Corruption........................................................................................................................................5
Dishonest and Fraudulent Behavior.................................................................................................6
Whistleblower protections...............................................................................................................7
Enforcement.....................................................................................................................................8
Compliance with the code...............................................................................................................9

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About our code of conduct
7-Eleven is committed to act with honesty, integrity and trust at all times- at work while
representing the company and after working hours.
Our core values
The directors and the employees of 7-Eleven Stores Pty Ltd are expected to always act in
conformity with the enumerated principles:
 To act with integrity, honesty, fairness and be accountable for our decisions
 To perform responsibilities to the financial markets and shareholders;
 To comply with the law and the policies and procedures of this without making or
receiving improper payments;
 To treat the employees with respect, value diversity and ensure a safe working
environment;
 To engage in business relationship honestly and maintain accuracy and privacy of
business records;
This Code of Conduct sets out the guiding principles that must be followed by the 7-Eleven
personnel against which we shall hold ourselves accountable.
In order to attain this objective, we should not compromise with the ethics and values of Respect,
Community, Excellence and Accountability.
Our principles
The 7-Eleven personnel are expected to act with the enumerated principles at all times.

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Discrimination
Unlawful discrimination implies treating a person or a group of persons including the
international students unequally on the ground of special characteristics:
 marital status, family responsibilities, disability;
 race, religious or political belief, nationality or age;
Discrimination further includes engagement in behavioral conduct that results in:
 intimidation;
 intentionally change of work rosters to cause trouble to specific group of employees or
any specific employee;
 bullying;
 unlawful discrimination at workplace;
 psychological harassment;
The Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) and the Australian Human Rights Commission Act 1986
(Cth) are the Federal statutes that aims at safeguarding people from being subjected to
employment discrimination on personal attributes. The disentitlement of employees from
receiving their wages or leaves or causing inconvenience for them amounts to workplace
discrimination that is dealt with under the Fair work Act 2009.
The state level statutes such as the Equal Opportunity Act 1984, Discrimination Act 1991
and Anti-Discrimination Act 1977 are also enacted to safeguard people from discrimination on
personal characteristics at state level.
Employees are expected to:

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 make honest complaint before the Fair Work Ombudsman while maintaining
confidentiality of information;
 inform about any unlawful discrimination taking place at workplace to the Line manager;
 comply with both the state/territory laws and Commonwealth laws;
The employees including the international student should be ensured that they are not prejudiced
after informing about occurrence of workplace discrimination.
Exploitation
Exploitation refers to an unfair treatment with the employees with the objective to benefit
from their work (Shacklock and Galtung 2016). 7-Eleven stores Pty Ltd strictly prohibit
exploitation of their employees including the international students at workplace. The Code of
Conduct prohibits:
 bullying or harassment;
 any unlawful discrimination against employees;
 threatening employees against making complaints about exploitation;
In respect of the international students, the company must ensure that:
 the International students working as employees are not subjected to exploitation based
on the nationality, race or age;
 the International students working as employees are not deprived of their legal
entitlements for employer benefits;
 International students are compelled to work against the terms and conditions of their
visa permit;

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 International students are not threatened for informing the Fair Work Ombudsman
against any workplace exploitation;
The International students must comply with the provisions stipulated under the Fair Work
Act 2009 (Cth) as this legislation addresses any issues arising from underpayment and other
forms of exploitation is dealt with by the legislations.
Corruption
Corruption refers to a fraudulent activity where a person misuses his or her position of
trust to obtain advantage by acting against the interests of the person the fraudulent represents
(Barak 2016). Bribery is a form of act that amounts to corruption and is strictly prohibited by the
Code.
In 7-Eleven, it is illegal for the personnel:
 to offer and accept any irregular payment or bribes for influencing business related
decisions;
 to manipulate business dealings for preventing manipulation in the organizational
transactions;
 to avert any reasonable measures that ensures the personnel including the contractors,
intermediaries and the business partners are acting in compliance with this Code, anti-
bribery policies and other related laws;
Anti-Bribery policies
Anti-bribery activities are inconsistent with the principles of integrity and fairness, which
might have adverse impact on the goodwill of the organization as well as that of the investors,

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suppliers, shareholders and consumers of the organization (Barak 2016). This Code strictly
prohibits engaging into any corrupted activities and obligates compliance with the Competition
and Consumer Act as well as other equivalent legislations applicable to the business activities of
the organization.
Dishonest and Fraudulent Behavior
Activities that is likely to deceive and commit fraud to any entity or person amounts to
fraudulent and dishonest behavior that results in financial loss to such person or entity. Dishonest
and fraudulent behavior includes:
 exploitation of wages and other legal entitlements of employees;
 manipulation in wage records;
 dishonest and fraudulent misrepresentation of financial performance reports;
 misrepresentation in cost claims;
Responding to Dishonest and Fraudulent behavior
The 7-Eleven personnel are required to complain about any dishonest and fraudulent behavior.
The company must maintain confidentiality of employees making such complain to ensure such
complainants are not victimized.
Responsibilities towards financial markets and shareholders
The business operations of 7-Eleven must:

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 ensure compliance with honesty and transparency in disclosure, financial reporting and
other obligations as stipulated in the ASX Listing Rules and in the Corporations Act 2001
(Cth);
 avert from communicating any inside information to other person or entity that is dealing
with the securities of the company or other listed entities while such person has
knowledge about ‘inside information’ relating to such securities;
Whistleblower protections
The enumerated principles shall be complied with to safeguard whistleblowers:
Raising Concern
Any employee including the international student are entitled to raise concern regarding
any workplace related concern before the Whistleblower Protection Officers (WPO) and the Risk
Management team of the company either directly or through secretly mailing about such
concern.
Improper Conduct
The following activities shall amount to improper conduct, which is strictly prohibited by this
Code:
 act infringing any legal obligation under the contract or any legal regulation;
 corrupt, unethical, illegal and fraudulent conduct;
 Discrimination, bullying or harassment;
 Unsafe Work Practices;

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Protection for Whistleblowers
In order to fortify the whistleblower protections in the credit, financial and corporate
sectors, the Treasury Laws Amendment (Whistleblowers) Bill 2017 (the Bill) has been
introduced as a single rule under the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth). It ensures that investigation
regarding the workplace related concerns is being conducted in a fairly manner.
 The Bill expands the effectiveness of the protection extended by the Act and widens the
eligibility of the whistleblower under the Act.
 It imposes more stringent obligations to maintain privacy regarding the whistleblower’s
identity;
 It extends the various disclosures that are safeguarded under the CA 2001 (cth) such as
disclosure about any conduct that amounts to improper state of affairs or misconduct.
Enforcement
In case of non-compliance with the Code of Conduct, 7-Eleven shall be subjected to fines
and penalties. The employees and/or company may be subjected to civil or criminal liability or
any other financial loss that might have a significant impact on the reputation of the company.
The company and/or its employees shall be subjected to remedies/ penalties for non-
complying with any of the provisions of the Code.
Exploitation and Discrimination- the contravention of this provision shall subject the person or
the entity making such contravention to civil/criminal liabilities or penalties under the state level
legislations, which are applicable to the business operations. At the Federal level, it shall be
subjected to relevant penalties as stipulated under the Fair work Act 2009 (Cth).

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Fraudulent and dishonest behavior- any fraudulent or dishonest conduct shall be subjected to
punitive measures such as fines or civil/ criminal liability under the ASX Listing Rules and the
Corporation Act 2001 (Cth).
Corruption- the employees and/or the company shall be subjected penalties or civil/criminal
penalties as stipulated in the territory and state within which the business carries out its
operations. However, the Commonwealth legislations that prohibits companies from engaging
into corrupted activities such as the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) and Part IV of the
Competition and Consumers Act 2010 (Cth) may also impose penalties in the event of
contravention of such provisions.
Whistleblower Protection- the Corporations Act 2001 and the Australian Securities and
Investment Commission (ASIC) safeguards whistleblower from being prejudiced after reporting
about violation of the legislative provisions committed by the director, employee or manager of
the company.
Compliance with the code
The Board of 7-Eleven considers compliance with this code as fundamental duty of the
personnel working in the organization. Any contravention of this Code of Conduct shall be duly
reported to the appropriate authority and stringent monitoring shall be implemented to ensure
accountability. In the event of infringement of the Code, the infringer shall be subjected to
disciplinary action including termination of employment. If such violation amounts to breach of
any relevant legislation, the matter may be referred to appropriate enforcement authority and the
identity of the person complaining should be kept as confidential to safeguard such person from
being victimized.

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Reference List
Anti-Discrimination Act 1977
Australian Human Rights Commission Act 1986 (Cth)
Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC)
Barak, M.E.M., 2016. Managing diversity: Toward a globally inclusive workplace. Sage
Publications.
Corporations Act 2001(Cth)
Discrimination Act 1991
Equal Opportunity Act 1984
Fair work Act 2009 (Cth)
https://www.7eleven.com.au/about-us
Part IV of the Competition and Consumers Act 2010 (Cth).
Shacklock, A. and Galtung, F., 2016. Measuring Corruption. Routledge.
Treasury Laws Amendment (Whistleblowers) Bill 2017 (the Bill)

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