2019 years a slave

The Modern Slavery Act

Good news!  After (too many) years of attempts, Australia finally introduced a Modern Slavery Act!  The Act came into effect 1 January 2019 and you need to start considering your obligations now.

Here’s what you need to know.

What is Modern Slavery?

In plain English, someone is in slavery if they are:

• forced to work – through coercion, or mental or physical threat;
• owned or controlled by an ’employer’, through mental or physical abuse or the threat of abuse;
• dehumanised, treated as a commodity or bought and sold as ‘property’; or
• physically constrained or have restrictions placed on their freedom of movement.

It can include forced labor, debt bondage or bonded labor, human trafficking, descent-based slavery, child slavery and forced and early marriage.