We champion the best labour standards in our supply chains, acting responsibly towards the workers who make our products and being proud of how we behave towards the people we do business with.
Co-op is committed to supporting the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and protecting the fundamental rights of workers in our supply chain. In line with this, our ‘Sound Sourcing Code of Conduct’ sets out the workplace and employment standards that we strenuously apply across our supply base, which is based on the Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI) Base Code and core international labour standards. We’re committed to driving improvements for working conditions and aim to be the UK's leading retailer in this vital area.
We believe that everyone deserves to be treated fairly.
Driving continuous improvements in working conditions in a global supply chain is a shared responsibility, between us and our suppliers. That’s why we have a ‘Supplier’s Guide to Ethical Trade’ setting out the standards we expect our suppliers to meet and a comprehensive supplier engagement programme to support suppliers in working toward meeting these standards.
We recognise that issues can be systemic and require long-term, sustainable improvements to address root causes and drive change. We don’t have a ‘cut and run’ approach, instead we’re committed to working with suppliers, understanding there is no ‘quick fix’ and firmly believe that collective effort will lead to significant and impactful results. Read more about our Human Rights Focus and work on the ground.
We know that human rights violations will only stop if we all work together, so we work with key partners and member groups to share what we know and combine our efforts.
Our other key partners include groups and initiatives such as the Modern Slavery Intelligence Network (MSIN), Unseen and the Spanish Ethical Trade Forums. For further details about our collaborative work with key partners please refer to our Modern Slavery Statement.
Collaboration is at the very heart of our approach. We believe collaboration is essential to developing sustainable solutions to issues that put workers’ interests first. We take this approach in the way we implement our monitoring programme, the way we work with our suppliers and peers to identify solutions to challenging issues, and the way we deliver our supplier engagement activities.
Working with our suppliers to deliver long-term sustainable change, the key behaviours we champion are:
To recognise supplier best practice, in 2021 we launched our Treating People Fairly Awards and published supplier case studies to showcase excellence in human rights practice. The case studies encourage suppliers to learn from each other and inspire new ways of mitigating future threats to labour rights and worker welfare.
We have key ways in which we drive improvements to working conditions, making sure that the workers who make our products are treated responsibly and ethically.
With growing challenges and increasingly long and complex supply chains, building strong supplier relations based on trust and transparency is key to achieving long-term and sustainable improvements to working conditions in the supply base. Read more about our human rights focus here.
The Co-op food ethical trading monitoring programme aims to stamp out modern slavery and exploitative working practices across the world, with regular checks on our suppliers and producers.
Our ethical trade monitoring programme reaches nearly 800,000 workers in 2,838 sites located in 66 countries across 6 continents. 100% of Tier 1 sites have completed a Self-Assessment Questionnaire (SAQ) and 100% of Tier 1 high risk sites are independently audited. We’ve mapped and risk assessed our supply base beyond Tier 1 in high-risk categories such as produce and protein. When we find issues, we work with our suppliers to put things right. In our 2022 monitoring programme figures, we reported to have 1,415 independent ethical audits across our supplying sites. 7,695 issues were raised in these audits (92% are completed, we’ve agreed a plan to complete the remaining 8% in 2023.
We further acknowledge the importance of freedom of association and collective bargaining as enabling rights that are critical to the success of our Ethical Trade Programme. Without them, workers are not able to shape workplace practices that allow us and our suppliers to get closer to our vision of “Co-operating for a Fairer World”. As such, we integrate these rights into our way of working with suppliers and expect them to facilitate access for their workers to such mechanisms. We remain committed to collaborating with all stakeholders to ensure that where local laws restrict these rights, workers are still engaged and consulted, and none are disciplined for doing so.
†734 Tier 1 and 2,104 beyond Tier 1. Data correct as reported in our Co-op Way Report 2022, where more information can be found.
Over the last 11 years we have supported the roll out of over 290 events, reaching 20,000 people and over 10,000 sites across the globe.
We’ve established a Strategic Ethical Trade Forum with our key suppliers, providing a safe space for us to talk about protecting people in our supply chain. Topics covered have included identifying risk and tackling modern slavery, consultations on new policies, supplier case studies, and horizon scanning workshops to inform future strategy.
In Spain and Egypt we’ve played a central role in building local forums to address key challenges and share good practice. In Italy we’re working collaboratively to improve working conditions for migrant workers in agriculture. Read more about our global identified high risk areas here.
Our regional forums bring suppliers together to discuss challenges and address key issues on their sites and within their global supply chains. There are four active forums located in Scotland and Northern Ireland, North of England, East of England and Central England that meet up to two times a year.
