Detailed Code of Conduct Report: Retail Food Group, Australia

This report presents a detailed code of conduct for the Retail Food Group, a food and beverage company based in Queensland, Australia. The report emphasizes the importance of ethical principles, respect, and fairness in the workplace. It addresses key areas such as discrimination, outlining policies against bias based on gender, religion, and other factors, and highlights the need for a diverse and inclusive environment. It also covers exploitation, ensuring accountability and protecting employees from abuse, sexual, and mental exploitation. The report further examines anti-corruption measures, including bribery prevention and business integrity. Additionally, it addresses dishonest and fraudulent behavior, advocating for an anti-fraud policy, and emphasizes the importance of whistle-blower protection. Enforcement mechanisms are also discussed, emphasizing the need for clear policies and procedures to ensure compliance and create a positive work environment. The report concludes that a comprehensive code of conduct is essential for the Retail Food Group to maintain a safe, ethical, and productive workplace.

Running head: CODE OF CONDUCT OF RETAIL FOOD GROUP
Code of conduct of Retail Food Group
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

1CODE OF CONDUCT OF RETAIL FOOD GROUP
Introduction
The Retail Food Group is a food and beverage company, situated in Queensland
Australia. It is a renowned supplier of the highest quality of the coffee and beverage products
and is the largest food retail franchise owner in the services of food, dairy products as well as
the wholesale bakery sectors (www.rfg.com.au ,2019). Being the greatest food retail, it
ensures that the participants of the organisation experience proper workplace environment
and they enjoy highest standards of behaviour and proper conducts. The organisation should
have its proper code of conduct and the purpose of this essay is to draft a code of conduct for
the Retail Food Group. The main aim of this conduct and the policies are so that the
Workplace employees have an appropriate workplace culture and maintains the same. Also
the code of conduct describes the standards of behaviour that is expected from the
participants of the company. The employees are expected to abide by certain ethical
principles and have respect for all the people, including being honest, unbiased as well as
working in an unprejudiced work environment.
Discussion:
Discrimination
The Retail Food Group of Australia has a variety of people working within the
organisation. The range of differences that lie within the organisation involves the
acceptance and the respect to the individuals and their characteristics (SA, 2015). The
following policies must be included in the code of conduct of the Retail Food Group.
 The employees of the organisation must not differentiate and discriminate the
other people on the basis of gender, or religion, ethnicity, family status, sexual
orientation as well as age, or any kind of different ideologies.

2CODE OF CONDUCT OF RETAIL FOOD GROUP
 The company’s past and the future successes depend on the reflection of the
diversity of the employees working in the organisation and this diversity of the
workforce should not be affected with any kind of discrimination between the
people (Pearson, 2013).
 The customers including the franchisees and the employees, as well as the
external participants of the organisation with respect and courtesy because the
Retail Food Group expects the employees to be treated by responsible and
professional persons.
 There should be code of standards which would be obeyed by the workplace
participants regarding discrimination on the basis of inequality of status or
gender.
 The work environment that the organisation provides must be free of any kind
of harassment. There should be enforcement of the company laws, which
would raise awareness among the people of the firm concerning harassment or
any kind of bullying behaviour. In order to prevent any kind of verbal or
physical discrimination, there should be the enforcement of the Anti-
discrimination Policy, or Workplace harassment policies.
Exploitation
The Retail Food Group in Australia must have an act code of conduct whose
prime purpose is to ensure greater accountability among the members of the
organisation. This code of conduct aims to protect and safeguard the staff and every
man or woman who works in the organisation, from any kind of abuse or sexual and
mental exploitation (Leipziger, 2017). The principles that the act alliance should
involve are

3CODE OF CONDUCT OF RETAIL FOOD GROUP
 The human rights of the people working in the organisation must be respected
and promoted without any kind of gender discrimination.
 The environment where the participants work must be strictly sexual and
labour exploitation free. There should not be any kind of abusive environment
prevailing (Mamic, 2017).
 There must be full cooperation on behalf of the managers or the union, for any
exploited victim. And there should be proper investigation regarding the
alleged persons.
 The vulnerability of any particular target group should not be exploited in the
context of humanitarian work, especially the women or the weak persons in
the workplace and they should not be put to any kind of compromising
situations.
 There should be proper understanding of what bullying and exploitation is,
and there should be development of strategies to reduce and stop this and
necessary disciplinary actions must be taken in order to stop further
harassment.
 Lastly, there should not be any kind of unethical exploitation and the labour
force must not be forced to work for extra time without any proper extra pay.
Even being underpaid also is involved in the exploitation of the workers. This
should also be prevented and the capability of the organisational workers
should not be exploited (Schleper, Blome and Wuuttke, 2017).
Corruption
The Retail Food Group should involve anti-corruption Code of Conduct to
prevent the corruption among the employees of the organisation. This should be
implemented so that the employees become familiar with the basic anti-corruption

4CODE OF CONDUCT OF RETAIL FOOD GROUP
principles and so that they are reminded of the code of conduct that they should be
complying with . The code should be applicable to all the employees of the Retail
Food Group as well as the executives and the intermediaries. The principles that the
anti-corruption code of conduct must include are as follows
 There should be strict prohibition of bribery in any form within the
organisation. Accepting any sort of pecuniary as well as offering or promising
any sort of advantage in relation to subsidiaries, or joint ventures can be
involved in the crime of corruption. There should be proper business integrity
and transparent principles for such a private sector food retail firm (Hess,
2014).
 The employees of the firm should be aware of any such kind of bribery that is
going on within the organisation and must take resort to it, by letting the
authorities know about the corruption. With the consultation of the employees
the organisation must develop a certain program taking in consideration the
business sector and the potential risks in order to prevent bribery from
occurring in all kinds of activities under its effective control. The program
must involve proper enforced laws and should be effective in controlling
subsidiaries both foreign as well as domestic (Stachowicz and Simha, 2013).
 The employees never should involve in any kind of illegal activities
knowingly. Also there should be no misusing of the funds and properties of
the organisation. This is also applicable to the income generated or earned on
the funds.
 There can be a scope for charitable contributions on behalf of the organisation,
as well as allowance of sponsorships. Prohibition of any sort of gifts, or
offering of hospitality and expenses must be prevented.

5CODE OF CONDUCT OF RETAIL FOOD GROUP
Dishonest and Fraudulent Behaviour
Dishonest and fraudulent behaviour in organisation is extremely unacceptable
and there should be proper code of conduct regarding this kind of behaviour. The
Retail Food Group must incorporate an anti- fraud policy. The components of this
policy can be as follows:
 There must be proper code of conduct for ethical behaviour and the employees
must be expected to behave in the most honest manner and have a
transparency towards their work or their organisation (Hanna, Crittenden and
Crittenden, 2013).
 There must be a proper mode of conduct which would be responsible for the
fraud prevention and detection. Any kind of fraud behaviour is obviously not
expected on the behalf of the employees, and even if there is any kind of
similar behaviour, the other employees must be cooperative enough to detect
the problem and report it, to ensure further prevention of the action.
 There must be proper investigation on the behalf of the authorities on a regular
basis so that the organisational reputation is not at a stake.
 Proper actions need to be taken against fraud cases and the employees must be
made acquainted with the policies of the organisation and the responsibilities
towards it.
 There must be a body or a proper authority that would investigate any sort of
illegal work that is going on within the organisation. There must be the
creation of an environment where the communities and the staff members of
the organisation can safely and confidentially raise and report any kind of
serious concerns regarding a suspected fraud or corruption case (Sethi, 2016).

6CODE OF CONDUCT OF RETAIL FOOD GROUP
 The business activities must be conducted in accordance with the
internationally accepted practices that upholds the highest standards of
accountability.
Whistle-blower Protections
A whistle blower is the person in any business organisation who is disloyal to
their respective company and exposes any kind of information or activity that is
illegal , unethical or not correct. The Retail Food Group must involve and incorporate
a strict policy in order to protect the company from these kind of whistle blowers and
also these people must be protected (Lee and Fargher, 2013). The employees are
supposed to report of any kind of suspected misconduct. The principles of this kind of
policy involve
 There must be proper action taken for the treatment of the whistle-blowers and
these people should be facing consequences for not complying with the policy.
 The policies must be applicable to all the employees of the organisation,
internal or the external people. Is the authority of the organisation or the
managers are involved in any kind of suspected behaviour, he or she should
also face the possible consequences of not abiding with the policies.
 It is the duty of every person of the organisation to report against any sort of
unethical practices (Dixon, 2016).
 There might be rewards or incentives for the employees who report against
such behaviours so that they remain motivated enough to remain loyal towards
their own organisation.

7CODE OF CONDUCT OF RETAIL FOOD GROUP
 The reports must be confidential and there should be an anti-retaliation stance.
The reports are expected to be made in good faith and they should remain
confidential, top prevent any sort of leakage of important information.
Enforcement
There should definitely be policies for the proper code of conduct and
behaviour that the employees of the organisation are expected to comply with and
abide by. This needs to be properly enforced so that the employees of the organisation
take the work seriously and work towards creating a better work environment for
themselves.
 There must be an identification of the framework that the management will
eventually use it in case of a detection or suspicion of any fraud case.
 There should not be communication of any kind of suspicion to the entire staff
or the other employees. Instead, there should be maintenance of confidentiality
and the authority needs to be informed on the primary basis and not the other
staffs.
 There must be a strict written policy or conduct that requires to be followed
and it can be circulated among the members of the organisation over the
internet or through the office journals.
 There should be considerations, which would include who should be suspected
as a victim, and who should actually investigate the entire incident. Also who
will determine the actions that need to be taken will also be considered.

8CODE OF CONDUCT OF RETAIL FOOD GROUP
Conclusion
Thus from the above draft of code and conduct for the Retail Food Group of
Australia, it can be concluded that a code of conduct or policies is extremely essential for an
organisation to ensure safe and a proper workforce environment. The employees should abide
by certain responsibilities and policies, which would help them to work properly in the
workplace. The employees as well as the authorities of the organisation must keep this in
consideration that there will be no discrimination on basis of any gender or status. Also they
should not be a victim of any kind of fraud behaviour or any exploitation on the behalf of the
organisation. They need to be aware of the policies and for this purpose the code of conduct
must be enforced by the company.

9CODE OF CONDUCT OF RETAIL FOOD GROUP
Reference
Dixon, O., 2016. Honesty without Fear-Whistleblower Anti-Retaliation Protections in
Corporate Codes of Conduct. Melb. UL Rev., 40, p.168.
Hanna, R.C., Crittenden, V.L. and Crittenden, W.F., 2013. Social learning theory: A
multicultural study of influences on ethical behavior. Journal of Marketing Education, 35(1),
pp.18-25.
Hess, D., 2014. Combating corruption in international business: The big questions. Ohio
NUL Rev., 41, p.679.
Lee, G. and Fargher, N., 2013. Companies’ use of whistle-blowing to detect fraud: An
examination of corporate whistle-blowing policies. Journal of business ethics, 114(2),
pp.283-295.
Leipziger, D., 2017. The corporate responsibility code book. Routledge.
Mamic, I., 2017. Implementing codes of conduct: How businesses manage social
performance in global supply chains. Routledge.
Pearson, R., Seyfang, G. and Jenkins, R., 2013. Corporate responsibility and labour rights:
Codes of conduct in the global economy. Routledge.
SA, A.L.A.B., 2015. Code of ethics and conduct.
Schleper, M.C., Blome, C. and Wuttke, D.A., 2017. The dark side of buyer power: Supplier
exploitation and the role of ethical climates. Journal of Business Ethics, 140(1), pp.97-114.
Sethi, S., 2016. Globalization and self-regulation: The crucial role that corporate codes of
conduct play in global business. Springer.

10CODE OF CONDUCT OF RETAIL FOOD GROUP
Stachowicz-Stanusch, A. and Simha, A., 2013. An empirical investigation of the effects of
ethical climates on organizational corruption. Journal of Business Economics and
Management, 14(sup1), pp.S433-S446.
www.rfg.com.au (2019). Home - Retail Food Group. [online] Retail Food Group. Available
at: https://www.rfg.com.au/ [Accessed 18 Aug. 2019].