As a founding member of Building Responsibly, Multiplex is at the heart of the construction industry’s response to labour and human rights.
As Head of Sustainability for Multiplex in the UK, María Fernández Cachafeiro is leading the charge, using BR’s Worker Welfare Principles to drive the sector forward.
Explain your role and responsibility at Multiplex
As the Head of Sustainability in the UK I work closely with both the sustainability and social value teams to deliver our ESG strategy and social governance. More specifically, we have two important documents: The first is our decarbonisation roadmap, ‘One decade to act’.The other is our social equity strategy, ‘Leave no one behind’, covering issues such as the ethical management of labour.
How old is the sustainability function within Multiplex
It’s pretty well established. The first sustainability professional joined in 2011, and we have had separate departments focused on sustainability and social value. This past year, I have been working to integrate them more under an ESG (environmental, social and governance) umbrella.
Explain a bit more about Multiplex as a business
María Fernández Cachafeiro, Head of Sustainability for Multiplex in the UK.
We are a construction company known for delivering the world’s best projects, and our purpose is simple - to construct a better future. We started working in Australia 60 years ago, and we’ve been working in the UK for the last 20 years.
We have offices in Australia, the Middle East, the UK, and Canada, and around 7,500 employees. We have delivered more than 1,100 projects globally with a combined value in excess of US$99 billion.
Multiplex is a construction management company, so we don’t employ labour directly.
How long have you been a member of Building Responsibly?
We’ve been involved since its inception in 2018 and were a founding member of the Building Responsibility (BR) Steering Committee. We helped to develop the BR Principles which have since been adopted by a number of construction and oil companies.
We got involved in BR through our business in the Middle East and our commitment to driving the industry forward in terms of improving the management of labour and human rights.
The FIFA World Cup held in Qatar threw a spotlight on workers’ rights and human rights in construction. What are the key challenges and pressures that are being faced by your industry right now when it comes to worker welfare given the enhanced attention the issue has been receiving?
Construction provides employment for around 7% of the world’s total workforce. And in the UK, it’s one of the largest sectors, employing more than three million people.
The main challenges we face are linked to the complexity of our supply chain. So, there are a number of layers for us. For Multiplex, we have contracts upstream with our clients, and then downstream, we have a number of subcontractors – the workforce assembling the pieces on site. They themselves have a number of subcontractors and directly employed workers, and people who work through agencies. So, the chain keeps getting longer and longer.
Of course, labour is essential for construction. But what we’re looking to do is make sure everyone is treated fairly – not just for our direct workers, but also the people who are working within our supply chain.
In Europe, construction is ranked as the second industry most at risk of modern slavery. And there are a number of forms of exploitation. In the past, we think of slavery as people owning people. But today it’s more to do with payment issues and people controlling people.
How has local or regional legislation helped to drive action, and how do you navigate that extra layer of complexity?
Well, in the UK we have the Modern Slavery Act, which really brought the issue to the forefront of the agenda. Companies have a duty to report on what they are doing to tackle modern slavery within their business and supply chain.
However, there is nothing like that in Canada right now, for example. When we’re trying to implement global policies, the relationship and reaction we get is completely different when there is a legal requirement compared to when there is not.
Where do we hear so many stories about poor working conditions and unfair pay? Is this a result of a construction industry trying to create places in the most cost-efficient way possible?
This is not a result of companies not caring. But I do think there is still a lack of awareness, and people getting lost amongst the crowd, especially in long and complex supply chains with umbrella companies.
We are trying to boost transparency so that people don’t try to stitch people up with things like fees being paid by employees when they should be covered by the employer. Unfortunately, you will always find that somebody is being taken advantage of.
How has your membership of BR helped to challenge some of this big issues over the last couple of years
Collaboration and knowledge sharing has been a really important part of the BR network. For both the construction and oil industries workers’ rights can be a very sensitive topic, and we tend to be keener to share the positives, as opposed to the negatives.
For me personally, working together as a collective has been a huge learning experience. Everything that we learn from each other and try to implement within our own businesses is ultimately driving the whole industry forward. The benefits are shared across the whole industry.
So, as a founding member of BR, Multiplex was a part of developing the BR Principles. How are you using those Principles as a business on a practical level today?
We launched our own ethical level management system in 2019. It’s very similar to any other management system, such as ISO 14001 with a set of processes and procedures that become standard across our operations. We have our very own ethical labour principles which are based on BR’s Principles. The document is included within all of our subcontracts and disseminated to everybody to make sure it is very clear what we expect from people. So, it’s almost like a Charter.
Looking ahead, what else would you like the BR group to focus over the next 12 months or two years that will help you in your role?
In this environment, things are continuously changing. Things like the war in Ukraine and Brexit in the UK mean that we have to adapt to challenges that come our way and ensure that labour and human rights remain at the forefront of the agenda.