Retail Food Group: Code of Conduct Addressing Key Issues

This report presents a comprehensive analysis of the Retail Food Group (RFG) Code of Conduct, addressing critical aspects of corporate governance, ethical conduct, and sustainability within the retail food industry. The report examines the existing code, identifying key areas such as discrimination, exploitation, corruption, dishonest and fraudulent behavior, whistleblower protections, and enforcement mechanisms. It provides an overview of RFG's commitment to ethical principles, regulatory compliance, and stakeholder expectations. The analysis includes a detailed discussion of each of the aforementioned areas, offering insights into the company's policies and practices to mitigate risks and ensure a fair and ethical workplace. The report emphasizes the importance of a robust code of conduct in fostering a positive work environment, protecting stakeholders, and upholding the company's reputation. Furthermore, it references relevant literature and real-world examples to support its findings and recommendations for strengthening RFG's ethical framework. The conclusion underscores the significance of a well-defined code of conduct in promoting long-term sustainability and success in the competitive retail food market.

Running Head: RFG 0
Retail Food Group
Governance, Ethics and
Sustainability
Code of Conduct
Student Name:
Student University:

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Contents
Code of Conduct: Retail Food Group (RFG).............................................................................2
Overview................................................................................................................................2
Scope......................................................................................................................................2
Right of Management.............................................................................................................2
Our Commitment...................................................................................................................2
Our Principles.........................................................................................................................3
Regulatory Compliance..............................................................................................................3
Discrimination........................................................................................................................3
Exploitation............................................................................................................................4
Corruption..............................................................................................................................5
Dishonest and Fraudulent Behaviour.....................................................................................5
Whistle-blower Protections....................................................................................................6
Enforcement...........................................................................................................................6
Ethics Committee.......................................................................................................................7
References..................................................................................................................................8

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Code of Conduct: Retail Food Group (RFG)
Overview
RFG is confidently dedicated to nurturing the workplace surroundings by promoting best
practices and make sure that all workplace members notice the uppermost criteria of values
and manner. In Australia, RFG is the major holding company of big and global retail food
and beverages by selling high-quality coffee products for development in the segments of
foodservice, bakery and dairy handling all over the world (Retail Food Group, 2018). The
purpose of this plan is to explain the standards of values and manner expected from the
company’s members and their requirements include respect for others; accountability,
uprightness, and trustworthiness; cooperation and governance; perform the duties with care
and attentiveness, and awareness about the company’s service concerned nature in the
business.
Scope
The Code relates to all the members of the company required to act according to the needs
and ethics of this Code; to report about breaking this Code; and not to enable manner which
may break or result in a break of this Code i.e., RFG ethical standard. The plan taken by RFG
with which this Code is operating in combination is related to the nominal standards of values
and manner in the company with RFG Orientation Guide, a Workplace Participant’s
employment agreement with an individual for applied services and the law (Code of Conduct,
2018). The inconsistency between this Code and other agreement plans as stated, this Code
and the law overcome. RFG operations and business stretched outside Australia where the
company notices the difference in cultures and laws of outer countries. It will be a loss if the
company holding their business in another country and because of cultural differences if any
law is breached where this Code is on all the members (Diversity Policy, 2018). Moreover, in
this Code, there is nothing that can break the law of outer countries while operating.
Right of Management
The management of the company had all the rights reserved if any break is found in
breaching of this Code.
Our Commitment
 The duties of the members working in the company are to manage the conflict of
interest

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 RFG protects the confidential information and privacy in the company
 The resources are available to use for the members of the company in the business
 The members of the company have the rights to enter into a public argument in RFG
private capacity
 It is important for the company to work in a qualified manner
 It is the duty of the members of the company to report for any breach of this Code
Our Principles
RFG expects from the employees of the company to follow these principles relating to the
different aspects mentioned below.
Regulatory Compliance
RFG, the Board of Directors and the top-level management are devoted to achieve and
establish the high standards of corporate governance. The Board approves various Australian
Securities Exchange (ASX) Principles which are expected to be followed by the members of
the company as mentioned in the agreement under the law (Xu, et al., 2015). The
stakeholders expect a high-level of accountability and responsibility from the company,
mainly supervisors and government. One of the important stakeholders is customers as well;
the company develops the transparency of operations and report on time the required
documents for reviewing and monitoring agreement with this Code to every supervisor;
controls the management (Tricker & Tricker, 2015).
Discrimination
Discrimination meant to be the unethical behaviour of any employee or member in the
company which is illegal at the workplace categorized by gender, age, race, religion, sex and
nationality, and disability as well (Jemal, et al., 2019). Individuals are treated differently
because of their different appearances which are counted as a breach of contract in the law.
The biasness is created between the employees based on their appearances or any member
ignores the regulations for disadvantage for other employees (Marcus & Fritzsche, 2016).
The Equality Act, 2010 came in to protect these appearances where employees can raise their
voice and file a complaint against the one involved in the practice of discrimination
(Benstead, 2018). RFG never supported the practices of unfair treatment in the company.
The company made different rules to avoid the problem of discrimination and disallow the
top-level management and supervisors to behave with the employees in an unethical manner.

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RFG provides free and fair workplace environment to their employees. The company asked
for implementing some of the practices in the company to employees for avoiding the issue
of discrimination which are:
 Fair preparing of job availability and non-discriminated manner
 Promoting employees on the basis of their skills and no personal appearances
 Equal providing opportunities to all the employees at the workplace
 Applicability of anti-discrimination law to implement other practices for support
This Code includes an anti-discrimination policy in the company which is applicable to all
the members. Employees or any stakeholder can contact or report if any unlawful activities
they face at the workplace. Moreover, they can report the problem of discrimination to
superior authorities as well when not feeling comfortable to report to the anti-discrimination
committee (Nelson, 2015).
Exploitation
In the workplace, mistreating employees is diverse where women are the main targets of
exploitation. It happens when any member of the company disregards the legal safeguards of
their employees for their own benefit; which is illegal. Sometimes, employees are forced to
perform the tasks that loss welfare and counted as unfair (Davies, 2019). It is important to be
aware of the one's needs, rights, and contributions which can help them to secure their
payables and job. The company is a defaulter when any employee is exploited at the
workplace. Exploitation includes making employees to overwork where it is useful to know
their legal rights, exploiting them for their appearances, unethical behaviour and do not pay
them well or full is the major problem of this practice (Anastasia, 2018). RFG value its
stakeholders which mainly include customers, employees, government and top-level
management where they expect fair and ethical behaviour. The efforts and time are valuable
for the employees of which other members cannot take unethical benefits to meet the
company’s goal. Therefore, to avoid this problem of exploitation in the business, the
company directs them to not to:
 Stress the employees to work for longer hours more than mentioned in the
employment agreement at the workplace.
 Stress them to work on public leaves.
 Provide profits to the company including the interest of other stakeholders.
 Make them wait for the salary without any valid reason

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The company expects from the superior authority to work with fair practices as per their roles
and take care of all the interests of stakeholders while taking any decision. RFG provides a
safe working environment at the workplace for the employees and gives them the freedom to
report against the problem of unethical behaviour and make stakeholders perform with
satisfaction.
Corruption
The members of the company unethically misuse the power of their position or involved in
false activities for personal benefits is known as corruption. It impacts the performance and
profits of the company. The members take void advantage of others and cause harm to those
who do not listen (Mars, 2019). Corruption is the problem caused by employees and others in
the company affecting employees and the performance of the business. To avoid corruption,
it is important to take measures for reducing the effect and security to identify the risks (Nica,
et al., 2016). The employees should have the knowledge and information related to corruption
activities at the workplace, awareness about the future unethical issues and take important
steps to prevent it, proper skill and qualifications to execute the process for keeping regular
check on the operation in the business and values of other employees, capabilities to destroy
corruption and confidence to play essential roles in opposing corruption for further growth
and development (Kiplagat, 2014). RFG made the policy to work on unfair practices of
corruption for saving the reputation of the company which is Anti-Fraud policy to reduce the
impact of corrupted practices and an Anti-Corruption policy to raise the voice against such
practices and file a report within the law created. RFG management is expected to act is the
better interest for the success of the company.
Dishonest and Fraudulent Behaviour
The dishonest and false behaviour can create problems related to identity, money, using
confidential information, property, and misuse with false documents. These problems can
results in profit loss, lack of productivity and degradation of morale. The unethical activities
are done by the employees who think of feeling low-paid or need to work for long hours
(Kouchaki & Wareham, 2015). The members of the company can report the problem, use the
policy of the business as mentioned in their agreement of employment; can take immediate
and disciplinary action, raise the voice against such activities by complaining to superior
authorities (Samociuk & Iyer, 2017). RFG expects honesty and fairness from every
stakeholder within the business where they ask for maintaining the image of the company.

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The company makes a training structure to guide the workforce for developing ethical values
and to act in an ethical manner. RFG give their stakeholders the utmost priority and ask them
to report any dishonest or false behaviour of members or employees on the behalf of the
company and they will look after that.
Whistle-blower Protections
Whistle-blowers are the ones who report for illegal or unethical activities within the company
for those who break the trust of the employees or members in the workplace (Cordis &
Lambert, 2017). There is a need for a law to protect the whistle-blowers and to motivate other
whistle-blowers to speak out for unfair practices in future (Miethe, 2019). The protection they
need is regarding confidentiality and against revenge. They have the legal rights of protecting
themselves fulfilled with the laws and to sue any individuals if their identity leaks at the time
of investigation. The Whistle-blower Act or policy prevents members from reacting against
employees who report threats. RFG applies the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA)
for providing safety at the workplace (Reese, 2018). This Act governs safety issues and gave
them the power to employees for raising their voice against the safety issues at the workplace.
Whistle-blowers cannot tolerate unfair practices at the workplace and it is the company’s
responsibility to protect them (Peffer, et al., 2015). The outline of the whistle-blower policy
is:
 RFG will arrange the structure to report the problem in a safe manner for employees.
 The conclusion of the investigation is according to the nature of justice and fairness
principles.
 RFG makes sure to protect the whistle-blowers after disclosing any unfair activity of
the members or employees of the company and report the outcome.
The company employees can also report any problem to higher authorities related to unfair
activities in the company.
Enforcement
Every employee and member of the company needs to act according to this Code. The Code
is compulsory and not optional to follow. Moreover, when in any case, there is a breach. The
company is responsible to give the reason to the ethics committee for such breach. The
allowable break in this Code is only allowed for two times maximum and should not be
serious in nature. It is the decision of the board to subject the seriousness of an activity where

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the company can impose penalties and fines in case of breaking provisions mentioned in this
Code (Moran, 2017).
Ethics Committee
This Code is developed by the company’s ethics committee where the members, employees,
and whistle-blowers can contact freely for raising voice against the issue faced by any unfair
practices. The ethics committee made essential improvements in this Code to handle major
issues of the company and stay important.

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References
Anastasia, 2018. 5 Employee Rights to Defend against Exploitation. [Online]
Available at: https://www.cleverism.com/5-employee-rights-to-defend-against-exploitation/
[Accessed 22 August 2019].
Benstead, S., 2018. What is discrimination in the workplace?. [Online]
Available at: https://www.breathehr.com/blog/what-is-discrimination-in-the-workplace
[Accessed 22 August 2019].
Code of Conduct, 2018. RFG. [Online]
Available at: https://www.rfg.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/CodeofConduct.pdf
[Accessed 2019].
Cordis, A. S. & Lambert, E. M., 2017. Whistleblower laws and corporate fraud: Evidence
from the United States. Accounting Forum, 41(4), pp. 289-299.
Davies, J., 2019. From severe to routine labour exploitation: The case of migrant workers in
the UK food industry. Criminology & Criminal Justice, 19(3), pp. 294-310.
Diversity Policy, 2018. RFG. [Online]
Available at: https://www.rfg.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/DiversityPolicy.pdf
[Accessed August 2019].
Jemal, A., Gardiner, M. & Bloeser, K., 2019. Perceived Race as Variable: Moderating
Relationship Between Perceived Discrimination in the Workplace and Mentally Unhealthy
Days. Journal of racial and ethnic health disparities, 6(2), pp. 265-272.
Kiplagat, D., 2014. Corruption in the workplace. [Online]
Available at: https://www.careeraddict.com/corruption-in-the-workplace
[Accessed 22 August 2019].
Kouchaki, M. & Wareham, J., 2015. "Excluded and behaving unethically: Social exclusion,
physiological responses, and unethical behavior.". Journal of Applied Psychology, 100(2), p.
547.
Marcus, J. & Fritzsche, B. A., 2016. The cultural anchors of age discrimination in the
workplace: A multilevel framework. Work, Aging and Retirement, 2(2), pp. 217-229.
Mars, G., 2019. Cheats at Work. 1st ed. London: Routledge.

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Miethe, T., 2019. Whistleblowing At Work: Tough Choices In Exposing Fraud, Waste, And
Abuse On The Job. London: Routledge.
Moran, R., 2017. Workplace spirituality in law enforcement: a content analysis of the
literature. Journal of Management, Spirituality & Religion, 14(4), pp. 343-364.
Nelson, T. D., 2015. Handbook of Prejudice, Stereotyping, and Discrimination: 2nd Edition.
2nd ed. UK: Psychology Press.
Nica, E., Hurjui, I. & Stefan, I. G., 2016. The relevance of the organizational environment in
workplace bullying processes. Journal of Self-Governance and Management Economics,
4(2), p. 83.
Peffer, S. L. et al., 2015. Whistle where you work? The ineffectiveness of the Federal
Whistleblower Protection Act of 1989 and the promise of the Whistleblower Protection
Enhancement Act of 2012. Review of Public Personnel Administration, 35(1), pp. 70-81.
Reese, C. D., 2018. Occupational Health and Safety Management. 3rd ed. Boca Raton: CRC
Press.
Retail Food Group, 2018. Welcome to RFG (Retail Food Group). [Online]
Available at: https://www.rfg.com.au/about/
[Accessed August 2019].
Samociuk, M. & Iyer, N., 2017. A Short Guide to Fraud Risk. 2nd ed. London: Routledge.
Tricker, R. I. (. & Tricker, R. I., 2015. Corporate Governance: Principles, Policies, and
Practices. UK: Oxford University Press.
Xu, S., How, J. & Verhoeven, P., 2015. Corporate governance and private placement
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