People and Community

Community and charities

Our extensive network of independent retailers across Australia means we are a key contributor to local communities. No two communities are the same, and we believe our ability to build and foster relationships within each community, and tailor our support to specific communities, is what sets us apart.

The IGA Community Chest Trust Fund (IGA CCF) has helped to support local communities for over 30 years. In FY19 we supported more than 1,600 local community groups, schools and sporting clubs as well as local and national charities. A total of $3.5m of donations were made, bringing total donations since inception of the fund to approximately $85m.

Through the IGA CCF, we continue to support The McGrath Foundation, St Vincent de Paul (Vinnies) and Special Olympics Australia. Other recipients of charitable donations included the Lord Mayor’s Charitable Trust, Guide Dogs Queensland, the Olivia Newton John Cancer Wellness Centre, the Humpty Dumpty Foundation and the Special Children’s Christmas Party.

In 2019 we celebrated 10 years of partnership with the McGrath Foundation, and over this period we have helped fund three specialist breast care nurses in regional Australia.

Special Olympics Australia is a charity close to our hearts and one which we have supported for 28 years. IGA was a Gold Partner for the 2019 Special Olympics and contributed approximately $300,000 to help fulfil the dreams of our competitors at the Summer Games held in Abu Dhabi.

Metcash staff participated in the annual Vinnies CEO Sleepout held at various venues across Australia and, together with additional Community Chest support, raised over $300,000 to help provide shelter and support services to those in need.

Through our Community Chest fund we also delivered financial support to Drought Angels to support the many people hit hard by the devastating drought across the eastern States of Australia.

In October 2018, we supported dairy farmers through the sale of our Community Co fresh milk sold in IGA stores in New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland.

Donations of 12 cents for 2-litre varieties and 17 cents for 3-litre varieties were allocated directly to drought-affected farmers in those States via our IGA CCF. Metcash did not participate in the $1 per litre milk offer due to the negative impact this has had on farming communities and the supply chain.

Safety and Wellbeing

The safety of our people and those we engage with is paramount at Metcash, and pleasingly we made good progress in the year towards our ‘Zero Harm’ target.

The importance of safety at Metcash is represented by the Safety function reporting directly to the Group CEO.

Adoption of the ICAM incident investigation methodology in FY19 has helped add further discipline to the investigation process and deliver more robust corrective actions.

We also introduced a ‘Making Safety Simple’ campaign which is focused on education and awareness.

Other initiatives included an increased emphasis on the identification and rectification of hazards to make our workplace safer, and the successful trialling and implementation of the ‘Shockwatch’ mobile plant and pedestrian safety system into high traffic areas at our Laverton distribution centre. We have also included leading safety indicator activities into leadership role scorecards.

FY19 included improvements in both our key safety measures. The Lost Time Injury Frequency Rate (LTIFR) declined by 36.3% to 7.59 and the Total  recordable Injury Frequency Rate (TRIFR) reduced by 12.4% to 32.15.

While we are pleased with these improvements there is still a long way to go to reach our ‘Zero Harm’ target. Safety is at the highest level in terms of our priorities and we have good plans in place to drive further improvement in FY20.

In addition to our focus on safety, Metcash provides employees with the opportunity to access a range of benefits to promote health and wellbeing. These include flexible working arrangements, wellbeing leave days, paid parental leave and allowing eligible employees to access an additional week of leave per year.

Human rights and modern slavery

Metcash has a wide and diverse supply chain that encompasses goods and services from both food and non-food sectors.

The company is committed to upholding human rights within our business and across our supply chain. We acknowledge our role and responsibility in seeking to safeguard human rights through responsible, ethical and sustainable business practices.

Metcash’s first year of reporting against the requirement of the Modern Slavery Act is the financial year ending 30 April 2020.

Diversity, inclusion and our people

Our people are our most valued asset, with belonging and inclusion fundamental to our culture and core values. We recognise that each person has unique strengths and that high performance is underpinned by embracing those strengths.

Progress against gender targets is regularly reported to the Board and includes a focus on improving female representation in leadership and in roles traditionally occupied by males. Our workforce at the end of FY19 comprised 31.4% females and 68.6% males, supported by our equal  opportunity hiring policies. The gender mix of the Metcash Board at the end of FY19 was 66.7% female and 33.3% male.

Metcash’s commitment to drive gender pay equality is reflected in Group CEO Jeff Adams being a Gender Pay Equity Ambassador with the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA).

In FY19 we further reduced the gender pay gap to 1%, compared to 2% in FY18. Our achievements in gender pay equality were recognised in February this year with the awarding of a citation from the WGEA as an Employer of Choice for Gender Equality.

We believe there is much to be proud of in how Metcash has addressed equality and balance for all employees.