At the Responsible Investment Association Australasia (RIAA) Conference, CAF’s Worker Engagement Officer Jennifer Alonso Garcia joined Australia’s Anti-Slavery Commissioner Chris Evans and ESG leader Måns Carlson to discuss modern slavery risks hidden within Australian investment portfolios.
A consistent theme emerged throughout the discussion: labour exploitation often remains hidden in plain sight, and organisations cannot rely on policies, audits and compliance reports alone to understand what workers are actually experiencing.
As Commissioner Evans noted:
“If we just look at balance sheets or compliance reports, we don’t actually know what’s going on.”
For investors, property owners and organisations seeking to manage labour rights risks, this presents a significant challenge. While modern slavery reporting frameworks and other due diligence processes are important, they only tell part of the story. Many workplace issues remain invisible unless workers are given a safe opportunity to speak openly about their experiences.
As the panel discussed, survivor and worker voices play a critical role in shaping effective responses to exploitation, ensuring that policies, reporting mechanisms and remediation processes are informed by the realities workers face on the ground.
Why Worker Voice Matters
CAF’s Worker Engagement Officer Jennifer Alonso shared her own experience as a migrant from Colombia who arrived in Australia seeking work and study opportunities. Like many migrant workers, she encountered insecure employment, unpaid hours and workplace behaviours that left her feeling vulnerable and unable to raise concerns.
“Many [migrant workers] stay quiet,” she said.
“Not because the things are going well, but because they feel they have no choice.”
For temporary visa holders and workers in industries such as cleaning, security and horticulture, those risks can feel particularly acute.
This is why worker voice matters.
Direct engagement with workers provides organisations with information that is rarely visible through paper-based compliance processes. Workers themselves are often the best people to identify whether wages and entitlements are being paid correctly, whether equipment and resources are adequate, and whether workplace concerns can be raised without fear of retaliation.
This is one of the key strengths of CAF’s worker engagement model, which creates structured opportunities for workers to speak to their real-life conditions.
Jennifer explained that for many cleaners participating in CAF worker engagement meetings:
“Sometimes it’s the first time that someone has truly listened to them.”
Creating Safe Spaces for Workers
That simple act of listening can be transformative. It builds trust, improves understanding of workplace rights and helps identify the causes and specifics of labour issues and allows for sustainable remediation to occur.
“Real solutions only happen when workers are part of the conversation,” Jennifer added.
The discussion highlighted an important lesson from CAF’s experience across the cleaning industry. Effective labour assurance requires more than compliance paperwork. It requires meaningful engagement with the people closest to the work.
As Jennifer reflected:
“The biggest learning from CAF is that workers need a safe space to speak up.”
CAF’s experience consistently demonstrates that worker engagement uncovers a significant proportion of labour rights issues that may not otherwise be identified through traditional compliance processes alone.
By creating trusted channels for workers to share their experiences, organisations gain access to insights that traditional reporting mechanisms often miss.
Why This Matters for Investors and ESG Leaders
The panel reinforced that labour exploitation is not simply a workplace issue. It is an investment, governance and ESG issue.
Labour exploitation can expose organisations to regulatory, operational, reputational and financial risks, making visibility over working conditions an increasingly important component of ESG risk management.
The discussion also highlighted a challenge facing many organisations. Amid cost pressures, geopolitical uncertainty and ongoing supply chain disruption, some businesses are reducing investment in human rights due diligence. Commissioner Evans expressed concern that these functions are often among the first areas scaled back when organisations face financial pressure.
At the same time, he argued that periods of geopolitical instability, economic uncertainty and supply chain disruption can create conditions where exploitation is more likely to occur. In that environment, greater transparency should be sought out and encouraged rather than discouraged.
Rather than punishing organisations for identifying indicators of modern slavery or labour exploitation, Evans noted that meaningful disclosure is an important part of understanding and managing risk.
Finding issues does not necessarily indicate failure. In many cases, it demonstrates that organisations are looking deeply enough to understand what is actually occurring within their operations and supply chains.
The message from the panel was clear: labour exploitation remains a real and ongoing risk, particularly where subcontracting arrangements are complex and worker voices are absent.
Organisations cannot manage risks they cannot see.
Workers often see what audits don’t.
By placing worker voice at the centre of labour assurance, organisations gain a more accurate understanding of workplace conditions, strengthen accountability and make better-informed decisions. For investors, ESG leaders and property owners alike, listening to workers is increasingly becoming an essential part of identifying, understanding and managing social sustainability risk.