Our human rights focus
Find out how we make sure everyone who helps produce the food you love gets a fair deal around the world.
We’re committed to protecting the rights of labourers in our supply chains around the world. After careful analysis, we’ve identified 8 key areas covering 17 countries where the risks are highest. Read more about how we identified these risk areas here and our collaborative engagement strategy to drive continuous improvements in working conditions in global supply chains with our suppliers here. We’ve set out what the issues are, the supply chain and products, and how we’re responding to the issues below.
Produce and protein industries in the UK are mainly seasonal and attract a large number of migrant workers to low wage and unskilled work. The seasonal nature of the industries leads many companies to use third party labour providers to supply workers on a temporary basis. These issues are further exacerbated by the impacts Covid 19, Brexit and global conflicts which affect the labour supply. As it becomes increasingly difficult to find enough workers to fulfil orders, employers are at risk of using unethical labour providers who cut corners on proper recruitment processes, creating an increased risk of modern slavery. We know these issues exist but due to language barriers or fear of reprisal, workers are unlikely to voice any concerns about working conditions. According to the Gangmasters & Labour Abuse Authority (GLAA), agriculture is among the worst sectors for modern slavery in the UK.
We are committed to eliminating modern slavery from our global supply chains. We are one of the UK retailers leading the way to raise awareness and understanding of the issue among suppliers and through initiatives such as Stronger Together and Food Network for Ethical Trade.
We’ll continue to be active participants in the collaborative initiatives outlined above, and we have set out a number of human rights goals as part of our Future of Food ambition to mitigate our risks.
The Global Slavery Index estimates that there are over 1.2m modern slavery victims in Indonesia, 421,000 in Vietnam and 610,000 in Thailand. The problem is particularly bad in the fishing and seafood industry with systematic violations such as workers being forced to pay a fee to get a job. The risk is exacerbated by the wide use of migrant labour. Additionally, each country also scores poorly on the ITUC Global Rights Index, which measures access to trade union rights.
Through our participation in a range of collaborative initiatives and working groups we are actively addressing issues in seafood supply chains and have achieved a number of successful results:
We will continue to be active participants in the collaborative initiatives outlined above, and we’ve set out a number of human rights goals as part of our Future of Food ambition to mitigate our risks.
Agriculture in Spain relies on migrant and seasonal labour, with some found to be exploited. Workers - often from Morocco, North Africa or Eastern Europe - are economically vulnerable and often have little education or ability to speak the local language. Even if they’re paid appropriately, they may have paid an excessive fee to get the job from a recruiter in their home country, meaning they live in poverty whilst in Spain. Women are particularly likely to migrate to Spain for work and are especially vulnerable to exploitation due to social status and language barriers. Regulation and inspection of labour providers in the country is weak.
We will continue to be active participants in the collaborative initiatives outlined above, and we have committed to a number of human rights goals as part of our Future of Food ambition.
Migration to Europe via the South of Italy has been increasing in recent decades. There are a number of ghetto camps of undocumented migrants in the Puglia growing region. Seasonal products that need to be cut or harvested by hand – such as tomatoes, asparagus and grapes – may use undocumented workers, and there is potential for exploitation of those workers either by the direct employer or those acting as an informal agent. Some agents form a ‘caporalato’ (or gangmaster) system – an illegal but entrenched way of recruiting, managing and, in many cases, heavily exploiting casual agricultural workers.
We will continue to be active participants in the collaborative initiatives outlined above, and have set out a number of human rights goals as part of our Future of Food ambition to mitigate our risks.
There is a large proportion of women working in the seasonal produce industry in Egypt and Morocco. In 2011, Oxfam identified issues with working practices for women workers in Morocco such as low wages, poor workplace and transport health and safety standards, and no access to social security payments. Gender-based violence has also been reported in the Moroccan produce industry. In Egypt, trade union rights are very weak as ranked by the ITUC Global Rights Index, and there are issues of exploitation of vulnerable workers, including children, especially on smaller farms.
We will continue to be active participants in the collaborative initiatives outlined above, and we have committed to a number of human rights goals as part of our Future of Food ambition.
The produce and wine industries in South Africa, which predominantly rely on migrant workers from Zimbabwe and Lesotho, have known issues of exploitation including low wages, long working hours, poor health and safety, and inferior accommodation. In the Kenyan produce sector, there are similar risks for low skilled, uneducated, often female workers. Whilst many improvements have been made, many issues remain due to workers’ lack of education and empowerment, with female workers particularly vulnerable. A distrust of trade unions among employers reduces the ability of workers to change their situation.
We’ll continue to be active participants in the collaborative initiatives outlined above, and have set out a number of human rights goals as part of our Future of Food ambition to mitigate our risks.
We’ll also improve the lives of workers and smallholders through our ongoing commitment to Fairtrade:
Labour turnover and mobility in China is high in many sectors as a result of annual internal migration patterns. Migrant workers on precarious employment contracts are particularly vulnerable to working excessive hours with inadequate pay for overtime, and some vocational student internship programmes in factories are considered indistinguishable from slavery. There can also be discrimination between workers of different hukou status (China’s household registration system). Many workers do not receive their full social security entitlements. And at a governmental and legislative level, freedom of association in China is extremely limited with no independent unions operating in the country. There is increasing concern regarding use of prison labour in Xinjiang and across China with reported links to the production of seasonal products and tomatoes.
We will continue to be active participants in the collaborative initiatives outlined above, and we have committed to a number of human rights goals as part of our Future of Food ambition.
The countries where these ingredients and products are sourced have limited local infrastructure, such as labour inspectorates, education systems and functioning courts of law, which increases the vulnerability of workers and smallholders involved. There are known issues of child labour in cocoa supply chains and issues of low smallholder incomes in cocoa, sugar and bananas. Human rights issues can occur in smallholdings due to the informal and small-scale nature of the work, poor communication channels and the general lack of visibility in global supply chains.
Co-op is committed to Fairtrade across cocoa, sugar and bananas, supporting the launch of Fairtrade in the UK and, for over 30 years, helping develop the market to become the world’s largest retailer of Fairtrade goods.
We will continue to be active participants in the collaborative initiatives outlined above, and have committed to a number of human rights goals as part of our Future of Food ambition. We’ll also improve the lives of workers and smallholders through our ongoing commitment to Fairtrade: