Giving back
Through our volunteering programs, all team members have the opportunity to spend one full day or two half-days per year volunteering, helping with activities like preparing nutritious meals for community members in need, local environmental clean-up days, fundraising drives and more. We’re also proud to provide workplace giving and a range of community programs that offer donations to causes our people regularly volunteer with or support outside of work – from memorial walks to local sports clubs, foodbanks, scouts, mental health organisations and more. Emergency Service volunteers can also apply for a $1,000 donation to support their local Unit.
Making a positive contribution
In 2021, our teams helped fundraise over $14,500 for Beyond Blue as part of the City2Surf race and visited local NSW SES brigades following flooding to pass on our thanks and $10,000 in donations.
With our long-term friends at Kids Under Cover, we donated $20,000 to support young people across Victoria experiencing or at risk of homelessness to stay connected to their studies, families and friends.
Through our Community Link program, we donated over $11,000 to special causes our people care about and volunteer with outside of work – from rural fire brigades to marine rescue squads, local sporting clubs, fundraising walks and food rescue charities.
As part of our broader Group, we’re proud to support the Royal Flying Doctor Service and join many local events important to our Queensland and Northern Territory communities each year, including NAIDOC Week celebrations, local business awards and community fundraising days.
As a business, we’re also pleased to offer workplace giving and one full day or two half-days per year of corporate volunteering time, encouraging teams to explore how they can make a difference – from preparing meals for people in need to local environmental clean-up days, charity drives and more.
Get to know some of our amazing volunteers
Each year, around 6 million Aussies spend time volunteering in their local community, contributing almost 600 million hours of unpaid community support in 2019 alone.
We know we have some incredibly generous and giving people working at Zinfra and we are delighted to share some of their stories.
Brad Hoare – Appin Fire Brigade, NSW
In 2012, Zinfra Industrial & Commercial Metering Supervisor Brad joined the NSW Rural Fire Service’s Appin Fire Brigade after relocating to the area.
As the world's largest volunteer firefighting organisation, the NSW RFS provides community support during incidents including natural disasters, motor vehicle accidents, planned hazard reduction exercises and a myriad of other things in between, including supporting other agencies.
Keen to learn more about firefighting duties and give back to his local community, Brad is now a Senior Deputy Captain and Training Officer – and is passionate about supporting people during their time of need, assisting with future preparation strategies and helping other NSW RFS members to learn, grow and become leaders.
Impressively, Brad also supports the NSW RFS Southern Highlands District as a Remote Area Operator and is an Aviation Rescue Crewman for the State Aviation Unit (one of only 45!) who assist with activities ranging from reconnaissance to re-supply and search and rescue (including during floods and fires).
Brad’s advice to anyone considering volunteering is: “If you have the time to give, then give it; you won’t regret it. When you enjoy doing something, it really does feel good to give back.”
Please join us in thanking Brad for his incredible service!
In 2021, our Community Link Program provided Brad and Appin Brigade funding to purchase materials and resources for their junior firefighter’s program (delivered during the peak of COVID-19) and equipment for a new fire truck.
Mick Schembri – Rowsley Fire Brigade, VIC
50km west of Melbourne lies the small farming area of Rowsley, where Zinfra Team Leader Field SCADA & Communications Mick acts as 2nd Lieutenant of Rowsley Fire Brigade.
As a Country Fire Authority (CFA) volunteer since 2019, Mick’s role involves supporting crew training and providing primary firefighting coverage – both for bushfires and structural fires – for people living across Rowsley Valley and its surrounding areas. Being a rural brigade, Rowsley also work closely with other nearby Brigades to share insights and help protect each other’s communities.
Over the last two years, Mick’s proud to have seen Rowsley’s volunteer numbers double, and of the way the team have worked through various restrictions to safely keep up with required training and improve their member’s skillsets and qualifications.
Mick’s advice for anyone looking to volunteer locally is to “Find something you are interested in and sign up! Consider things outside your comfort zone, as you may surprise yourself with what you can achieve.”
Please join us in thanking Mick for keeping his community safe!
In 2021, our Community Programs provided the Rowsley crew with funding for a mobile app to improve information around and communications between crews during call outs. With essential equipment purchases often reliant on community funding, donations and grants make a big difference in ‘arming’ CFA crews to stay safe & help others.
Our position on Modern Slavery
We are opposed to all forms of modern slavery and forced labour in our industry, our business operations, and in the operations of our suppliers. We are committed to ensuring that modern slavery is not present within our business and supply chains.
What is modern slavery?
Modern slavery is an umbrella term for situations in which a person is forcibly or subtly controlled by an individual or a group, for the purpose of exploitation. Modern slavery can happen in a variety of ways, such as forced labour, child labour, human trafficking, debt slavery, deceptive recruiting for labour and/or services, and exploitation of minimum wage requirements.
We have a zero-tolerance approach to modern slavery and we are committed to tackling modern slavery throughout our supply chains, consistent with our disclosure obligations under the Modern Slavery Act 2018 (Cth).
Launch of our third Modern Slavery Statement
In our third Modern Slavery Statement, we have highlighted the actions we’ve taken in 2022 to further mature our processes and systems to address the potential risk of modern slavery in our supply chains and operations.
Modern slavery is an overarching term for situations in which labour is undertaken by people being exploited by others - including forced labour, illegal forms of child labour, human trafficking, debt bondage, deceptive recruiting for labour, and exploitation of minimum wage requirements.
We continue to improve how we identify and respond to the risk of people being exploited to deliver the goods and services we use – as a large infrastructure business, we have globally connected supply chains, and are exposed to potential risks from workforce practices across the world.
Some of our actions in 2022 included:
progress in implementing our Modern Slavery Action Plan, established in 2021
increased engagement with our suppliers, and improved understanding of their practices through implementing our modern slavery questionnaire – more than 400 suppliers completed this in 2022
continuing to implement our modern slavery training and awareness activities for our people
continuing to monitor Australian and international information and reports about modern slavery and to work collaboratively with our peers in the energy sector through the Energy Procurement Supply Association (EPSA), to share information about potential risks
developing new procurement and contract management procedures for the business with more guidance for our people in addressing modern slavery risks.
A copy of our Modern Slavery Statement 2023 is available here.
What are we doing about modern slavery?
We are establishing working practices that enable us to monitor and reduce modern slavery risk within our business and supply chains.
As an industry, we have actively participated in an energy industry-wide action group to identify opportunities to integrate sustainable procurement procedures and implement a human rights compliance program. These have been documented in the Energy Procurement Supply Association (EPSA) report, Respecting Human Rights in our Supply Chains. This report is a practical guide to understanding business and moral challenges, and will help shape the development of appropriate mechanisms to detect, manage and report human rights issues in the future.
