Economic sustainability
Timberwell Constructions is a housing development company that develops building complexes in the district of Stanwell Council. Dennis McCabe, who was an employee of the company resigned and filed a case of workplace harassment in the Fair Work Commission (FWC). He lodged number of complaints in Australian Competitive and Consumer Commission (ACCC), State Corruption Commission (SCC) in addition to the Department of the Environment and Energy against Timberwellregarding various aspects.
- FWC-Work harassment claim for age discrimination
- ACCC-Anti-competitive conduct i.e. misuse of market power and exclusive dealings
- SCC- Corruption i.e. offering bribe to the project officers of council
- DEE- Clearance of endangered ecological community coastal grasslands
Under this revelation, the reporting organization should explain the risks and opportunities caused due to change of weather that have the possibility to make substantial modifications in the procedures, income or expenses. The organization should provide description of the impact related to that risk or opportunity and the financial suggestions before taking any action. Additionally, the methods utilized to manage the risk or opportunity should also be reported by the organization(May & Brennan, 2006).
The investigation conducted against Timberwell after complaint of Dennis required them to pay a fine of $200,000 because the company had cleared 0.45 hectares of critically endangered coastal grasslands and utilizing it for the development purposes. The area which has been cleared by the company was recognized under State Planning Scheme because of presence of important flora and fauna. Afterwards, the company took the matter seriously because it was ordered by the DEE to undertake an external reassessment of its flora management plan and to expand its review program for the contractors and to execute a rehabilitation plan of expenses around $440,000.
Under this disclosure, the reporting organization is required to report about the various incidents of corruption and the others wherein, employees were dismissed or took under discipline for corruption (Bond et al., 2012). The numbers of incidents whenever contracts with business associates completed or not transformed due to violations about dishonesty are also required to be reported. In addition, the organization should also report about the public legal cases related to the corruption that have been brought alongside the organization or its employees throughout reporting period as well as the results of such cases.
In this context, the complaint filed against Timberwellin the SCC which resulted in a public corruption scandal involved five employees of the company along with its two business partners. The complaint was based on the matter that in order to get the approval from the council for development and to forward the development application regarding it, five employees of the corporation along with two outer consultants offered bribes to the project officers of the council(Popea et al., 2004). Due to this reason, SCC charged all the five employees and one external consultant with corruption charges. In response to it, Timberwell took serious action and suspended those five employees without pay till the decision pending under prosecution. Along with it, the business also ended its joint venture with both the exterior consultants charged with corruption.
Disclosure 201-2 Financial implications and other risks and opportunities due to climate change
Under this disclosure, the reporting organization needs to report regarding the pending or completed legal activities throughout the reporting phase related to the anti-competitive behaviour and infringements of the anti-trust and control legislation wherein, the contribution of the reporting organization has been identified (Ding, 2014). The organization needs to report about the main results of the concluded legal actions, which include decisions as well as judgments.
One of the employees named Dennis had made a number of complaints to various government authorities about the operations of Timberwell. One such complaint was taken into consideration by the ACCC, which established the proceedings in the Court alongside company for anti-competitive behaviour that involved mistreatment of its marketing power as well as restricted dealings. The allegations were made against Timberwell by the ACCC that the company was well aware about the plan of local builders to establish a development corporation that would obviously be its opponent or competitor in the region (Jenkins et al., 2003). It was alleged by the ACCC that due to this threat of competition, the senior executives of the company asked the suppliers as well as the contractors to not to get involved with the new development company or else, the company would lessen or withdraw business with them. It was claimed by the ACCC that it was the strategy of the company to deter or prevent the new entrant in the market and to reduce the competition in the development market of the region.
It was a kind of monopoly practice and an anti-competitive act as well that could influence the preferences of the customers, pricing and other factors as well that are considered to be as highly significant to the efficient markets(Morrison-Saunders et al., 2015). The monopolies are controlled or prevented by the government with the assumption that competition between the organizations can promote economic efficiency as well as substantial growth of the country.
The reporting organization is required to report about the overall fuel utilization in the organization through renewable as well as non-renewable sources in joules and should also include the type of fuels utilized by the organization. The organization should also report about the standards, assumptions, methodologies as well as the calculation tools being utilized by them in order to calculate the total amount of energy consumption.
Due to lot of negative publicity, the company issued a number of media release in order to demonstrate its corporate responsibilities. In its second media release, Timberwell explained about its energy consumption table on the basis of calculation tools that have been approved by the ADIS. The organization revealed that the fuel utilization through non-renewable resources was 1 Gigajoule and through renewable sources was 0.5 Gigajoule and the total energy consumption of the organization was 2 Gigajoule. However, the organization neither revealed the types of fuel being used by them nor about the source of consumption for the remaining 0.5 joule. Furthermore, it was also revealed by the organization that it had applied a program to increase its fuel spending from renewable resources to a minimum of 50% of its entire fuel utilization within the next 3 years.
Disclosure 205-3 Confirmed incidents of corruption and actions taken
The organization should report about direct or indirect effect on biodiversity, which involve building or utilization of manufacturing plants, mining or transport infrastructure, pollution, introducing persistent species, pathogens or pests, species reduction, habitat adaptation and changes in the ecological processes (Jones, 2008). In this context, the organization should report about significant impact with regard to influence on species, extent of area to be affected, duration of impact and reversibility or irreversibility of the impacts.
The organization was fined by DEE for permission of 0.45 hectares of critically endangered coastal grasslands. It was revealed by the company that EIA performed on its Otford Park development site found that 60% of the location consisted of the population of rare wallum sedge frog and proposed, average density housing development was expected to irretrievably alter the habitat and would have destroyed the survival of frogs on the site. Taking into consideration all of it, the company is functioning with Council and various environmental groups to develop a plan for the management of planned development location as well as preservation of rare species of frog.
The business should report about the compensations and non-financial sanctions for no fulfilment of environmental regulations including overall financial value of compensations, non-financial sanctions as well as argument resolutions (Josh Byrne & Associates, 2018).
Due to clearance of endangered community, the company was fined $200,000 and was ordered to execute a rehabilitation plan which would have price of around $440,000.
- i) Disclosure 401-1 New employee hires and employee turnover
The organization should inform about the overall number and rate of employees hired and employee turnover based on age, sex and region during the reporting period (GSSB, 2016).
Timberwell employed 58 males from different construction- based professions and employed 12 new interns during the reporting period, as 17 employees have left the organization. In order to retain the employees, the company has increased worker’s salaries as well as implemented rostered day off every month. So, there is no description about the reason for increase.The employees’ rate of retention seems to be low in the organization, because of which, the organization increased pay rates and holiday for the employees.
The business should report about the incidents related to discrimination in their reporting period. In this context, the business should provide information about the position of the incidents and activities considered by the organization in this regard. The organization should inform about the incident review, remediation plans to be considered for implementation, remediation plans that have already been implemented and the outcomes of the plans to be reviewed by routine internal management review processes. Furthermore, the organization should also report about the incidents that are not required to be taken into action. In this context, the organization should provide the report that includes incidents related to discrimination on the basis of sex, religion, political inclination, race, colour, nationality or social or cultural aspects in accordance with the ILO and other related forms of discrimination, which involve internal as well as external stakeholders through operations during the reporting period.
Disclosure 206-1 Legal action for anti-competitive behavior, anti-trust, and monopoly practices
Dennis resigned the organization and claimed workplace harassment case against Timberwell organization in the FWC. The allegations made by the employee were that he was differentiated because of his age by the co-workers. It was stated by Dennis that he was the only member of staff who was older than 50 years in the organization and all other employees were in the age group between 30 and 50 years. Due to this reason, all other employees used to make fun of him and he usually became the objective of embarrassing age related jokes by others. The allegation of Dennis was upheld by FWC which ordered the company to compensate $4,400 to Dennis. As well, the commission ordered the company to promote its anti-discrimination policy as well as to provide anti-discrimination education to all the employees. Timberwell obeyed all the orders of the commission because the presence of effective policies and its implementation is essential to avoid the discrimination and to establish socially responsible conduct of the organization.
The organization should inform about the fraction of operations regarding implementation of engagement of local community, development programs and impact assessments which include the utilization of social impact assessments; environmental impact assessments;disclosure of results of both these assessments; development programs of local community;stakeholder engagement plans;consultation committees as well as processes of local community;occupational health as well as safety committees; and other grievance processes.
The company explained in its third media release and explained about the considerable expenditure it was doingon the engagement of local communities, on performing impact assessments as well as in formulating the social development programs for all the future residential developments in the region. The company informed that all those initiatives included Environmental Impact Assessments, meetings of local residentsas well as development programs for local community, which were based on the requirements of the local community for the purpose of inexpensive social accommodation. The company has employed all initiatives essential for the benefit of the society and invested a lot in it.
Conclusion
Timberwell Company was alleged for various environmental, economic and social issues. The company took all the allegations seriously and has taken serious initiatives in this context. The report shows how company has complied with the different disclosures related to sustainability.
References
Bond, A., Morrison-Saunders, A. & Pope, J., 2012. Sustainability assessment: the state of the art. Impact Assessment and Project Appraisal, 30(1), pp.53-62.
Ding, G.K.C., 2014. Sustainability Assessment of Residential Development – An Australian Experience. International Journal of Construction Management, 10(2), pp.19-32.
GSSB, 2016. Consolidated set of gri sustainability reporting standards 2016. [Online] Available at: https://www.ekvilib.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/GRI-standardi-2016.pdf [Accessed 12 October 2018].
Jenkins, P.B., Annandale, D.D. & Morrison-Saunders, D.A., 2003. The evolution of a sustainability assessment strategy for Western Australia. EPLJ, 20, pp.56-64.
Jones, R., 2008. A Sustainability Assessment of the International Association of Impact Assessment Conference. In Annual Conference of the International Association for Impact Assessment. Perth, Australia, 2008. Perth Convention Exhibition Centre.
Josh Byrne & Associates, 2018. Sustainability assessment. [Online] Available at: https://joshshouse.com.au/about-the-project/sustainability-assessment/ [Accessed 11 October 2018].
May, J.R. & Brennan, D.J., 2006. Sustainability Assessment of Australian Electricity Generation. Process Safety and Environmental Protection, 84(2), pp.131-42.
Morrison-Saunders, A., Pope, J. & Bond, A., 2015. Handbook of Sustainability Assessment. Edward Elgar Publishing.
Popea, J., Annandale, D. & Morrison-Saunders, A., 2004. Conceptualising sustainability assessment. Environmental Impact Assessment Review, 24, pp.595-616.
Order an Essay Now & Get These Features For Free:
Turnitin Report
Formatting
Title Page
Citation
Outline
