PA GE Train and Ferry Whistles Blow for the Last Time - TOLL Group

02 03
MANAGING DIRECTOR’S REPORT
Paul Little – Managing Director
Second Step
IN 2001, TOLL DEVELOPED THE GROUND
BREAKING AND HIGHLY SUCCESSFUL
SECOND STEP – A PROGRAM DESIGNED TO
OFFER EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES FOR
PEOPLE WHO, AS A RESULT OF PREVIOUS
DRUG AND INCARCERATION ISSUES, FIND
IT DIFFICULT TO OBTAIN OR RETAIN
SUITABLE EMPLOYMENT.
Toll have employed over 140 people through
the program and many have gone on to be
outstanding loyal employees.
Our core belief is that anyone could be in
this situation. These people have tripped up,
made a mistake, they’ve paid for that, and
they’re desperate to get their lives back in
order. A job is crucial to long term recovery,
but many struggle to get back into the
workforce and find an understanding
employer.
Invariably drug addicts have alienated
themselves from their friends, certainly from
employment and quite often family. They are
out there with a willingness to continue their
recovery, but without the opportunity and
support.
Toll’s Second Step program provides a period
of supported employment and aims to help
people to:
replace their previous lifestyle with a
safer and more constructive one;
re-establish themselves within the
working world;
develop strategies for coping with
difficulties in daily life;
establish a lifestyle and work habit that
will help them avoid resuming previous
self destructive behaviours; and
move on to the next stage of their life with
skills, experience and a solid reference for
future employment.
As long as participants commit to remain
drug free, and agree to weekly testing, they
are offered a suitable position for 12 months.
Toll matches them with a mentor or a work
place buddy and provides assistance like
time off to attend counselling or court cases.
Candidates are recommended to Second
Step by a variety of partner programs. These
partner programs have worked with them
prior to placement and continue to provide
support and counselling throughout the
period of employment.
Ninety-five percent of the people who enter
the program complete it and the majority stay
with the company. They really do appreciate
the chance they have been given and they
have become outstanding employees.
We’ve had marriages, we’ve had babies,
we’ve had people returning to university,
we’ve had a whole raft of people excelling in
their lives – and that’s tremendously
rewarding.
One of the common themes we see is that
governments struggle to support these sorts
of programs as aggressively as we think they
should, and so business is well placed to step
up to the plate.
The ABC’s 7.30 Report ran a feature on the
Second Step program which received an
overwhelmingly positive response from the
community, organisations and corporates.
You can view the television feature and
transcript from the home page of our website
at www.tollgroup.com – then click on Toll
Community – The Second Step Program.
In addition, Second Step has benefited Toll in
unexpected ways and now we plan to expand
the program nationally and internationally
and that includes assisting other corporates
who are interested in potentially following
suit.
We will be hosting a couple of luncheons for
our major customers and suppliers in late
July to share our experience and offer the
opportunity to consider how other businesses
can profit from taking a step in a different
direction.
EXTRACT FROM ABC 7.30 REPORT
24 MARCH 2008
REPORTER: NATASHA JOHNSON
Reporter: At 4.00 am on a cold winter’s day
18 months ago, recovering drug addict
Second Step Member set off on an arduous
ride into a new life.
She’d recently been released from jail with
no money, no possessions and no one to turn
to, except welfare agencies that gave her
clothes, a bike, and a place in a supported
employment program run by Toll Holdings.
Every day for the next three months, she
spent three hours travelling each way by
bike and train, from a boarding house in
Melbourne’s northern suburbs to a job
hauling boxes at a warehouse in the west.
Second Step Member: Every day I used to
think "What the hell am I doing? This sucks,
I hate it, I don’t want to do this," but I kept
going, every day. They offered me something
nobody ever would. They believed that
I could do it. They trusted me, so I promised
them I would do it. So I had to.
Paul Little, Managing Director, Toll Holdings:
It’s that sort of drive that I think makes her
such a wonderful employee today.
Reporter: Before she landed in jail, she lived
under this bridge in a drug addled haze. It
was the miserable climax of a 15 year
addiction that started with marijuana and
ended with ice. Her parents were alcoholics,
her childhood was overshadowed by violence
and neglect and she was sexually abused at
the age of nine. Drugs helped ease the pain
but led her into stealing, dealing and
prostitution. But 18 months on, her life has
been transformed. She now gets her highs
jumping out of air planes, and has a new
circle of friends and delights in the basics
most of us take for granted.
Second Step Member:
Just for you, my friend.
I live in a house; it’s got
furniture inside it. I eat
food, real food. I drive a
car. I have money. Life is
pretty good. I’m liking it.
Reporter: She attributes her success to Toll’s
Second Step program which over the past
seven years has employed 132 people with a
drug or criminal history looking for a fresh
start.
Ruth Oakden, Chaplain, Toll Holdings:
Sometimes helping someone be work ready is
about ringing them up, when I get up in the
morning say "Are you out of bed yet? I am". It’s
a short-term getting someone started but it’s
the kind of thing that stops someone getting
into the workforce themselves. Because if they
miss the alarm on their first day at a new job
they haven’t got the supports in place, chances
are there’s not going to be a second day at the
new job.
Second Step Member: It
gives people like me hope.
Hope that someone will
believe in them. That they
are willing to change. You
can get out, and live a
normal life.
MANAGING DIRECTOR’S REPORT
Toll Disclosure Hotline
‘Help Toll, Help You’ Coming Soon
AS A GLOBAL LOGISTICS INDUSTRY LEADER TOLL AIMS TO BE A MODEL EMPLOYER FOR
THE MORE THAN 35,000 PEOPLE WHO WORK FOR US AROUND THE WORLD. OUR
CUSTOMERS EXPECT OUR TEAM TO BE THE MOST EFFICIENT AND PROFESSIONAL IN THE
INDUSTRY AND WE ARE DETERMINED TO MEET THAT CHALLENGE.
Toll does not tolerate fraudulent or improper conduct by its
employees or contractors. Importantly, the company does
not tolerate reprisals against people who come forward to
disclose improper conduct.
The Toll Disclosure Hotline is being implemented to further
enhance the reporting of fraud and improper conduct and
to complement the Toll Code of Practice.
KEY POINTS
Toll Disclosure Hotline is being introduced in Australia.
Callers can remain anonymous or ask for their identity
to be protected (the law does not allow the sharing of
contact information under these circumstances).
Callers cannot be victimised and reprisals will not be
tolerated.
Information will be professionally investigated.
The Board of Toll will receive reports of fraud and
improper conduct and ensure appropriate action is
taken.
The Hotline provides an impartial process for employees (including subcontractors and agents)
to report fraud and improper conduct and to allow a professional investigation. Given the
increasing size of Toll, the Disclosure Hotline provides reporting of fraud and improper conduct
right up to the Board.
Employees are encouraged to make disclosures in good faith knowing that they have the support
of the company to protect them against victimisation, harassment, or discriminatory treatment.
All disclosures will be investigated by the company to ensure appropriate action is taken where
necessary. The Hotline does not remove responsibility of business units to manage instances of
misconduct.
Toll has also developed a Disclosure Protection Policy which will be made available to every
employee, and further details the types of serious misconduct that should be reported. This
policy is designed to complement the normal channels for reporting any workplace issues to an
employee’s immediate supervisor, business unit General Manager or HR Manager.
The Toll Disclosure Hotline will be available across all states and territories of Australia. Please refer
to the Toll Intranet under ‘Toll Disclosure Hotline’ for more information on how you can access the
Hotline service and view a copy of the Disclosure Protection Policy when it becomes available.
The implementation of the Toll Disclosure Hotline complements the Company’s commitment to a
strong culture of corporate compliance and ethical behaviour.
If you have any questions on the Toll Disclosure Hotline service or Disclosure Protection
Policy, please contact:
Richard Wilson Bernard McInerney
General Manager Company Secretary
Business Assurance and Internal Audit PHONE +61 3 9694 2843
PHONE +61 3 9694 2878
Letter to Employees follows on the next page.
TOLL TODAY JUNE – AUGUST 2008