US organisaton awarded funding to advance ethical labour practices and strengthen workforce development across the produce industry
Equitable Food Initiative (EFI), the workforce development and certification organisation that partners with growers, farmworkers and retailers, has been awarded a US$1.2mn grant from the Walmart Foundation.
The funding marks the fourth grant EFI has received from the Walmart Foundation, part of its efforts to promote responsible labour practices across the produce supply chain.
The grant will support EFI’s role as administrator of the Ethical Charter Implementation Program (ECIP), the industry collaboration focused on helping employers align their management systems with the principles of the Ethical Charter on Responsible Labor Practices.
EFI said the funding would allow it to accelerate industry adoption and make ECIP a more effective tool by adding new components for farm labour contractors (FLCs) and workers on the ECIP Learn, Assess and Benchmark (LAB) platform.
ECIP provides the industry with a uniform approach to growers’ and suppliers’ engagement in strengthening labour management systems aligned to the Ethical Charter.
“The latest grant from the Walmart Foundation is key to widening ECIP’s impact and creating new engagement paths for FLCs and workers,” said Peter O’Driscoll, executive director of EFI.
“FLCs manage a significant portion of the field workforce, so expanding ECIP to align their practices with the Ethical Charter is a vital step that can have a tremendous industrywide impact on workers.”
EFI noted it would focus on three key objectives during the grant period.
These were increasing industry participation with ECIP, launching FLC LAB, and integrating worker tools and surveys into ECIP.
“ECIP is quickly becoming the connector for many continuous improvement programmes for labour practices in the produce industry,” said Gavin Bailey, senior manager, sustainability at Walmart Foundation.
“Expanding ECIP to include farm labour contractors and direct input from workers is a critical step in fully aligning the produce industry with the Ethical Charter.”
The integration of worker input would bring vital labour voices into ECIP, it noted.
“We’re thrilled to provide workers with the ability to assess labor practices in their workplace,” O’Driscoll added. “The core of EFI’s work is to engage workers throughout the supply chain, and their participation in ECIP will bring more insights to help employers on their continuous improvement journey.”
