The Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI) is launching a new approach aimed at driving widespread, sustainable change for and vulnerable workers in global supply chains including fresh produce.
ETI director Peter Mcallister said: “We’ve made great strides in pushing ethical trade up the corporate agenda over the past decade, with clear progress in some areas. Yet too many workers around the world continue to be denied their rights.
"It's time all those involved in ethical trade focused less on how many training courses have been delivered, or how many audits have been completed, and more on whether we are actually making a positive, sustained difference to the lives of the workers we are all trying to help.
“There’s no point training factory workers about their rights if they’re prevented by their employers from joining unions, or if the buying practices of the factory's customers make it difficult for them to keep hours down to reasonable levels, or to pay their workers a decent wage.”
The new ETI approach will focus on tackling the root causes, rather than the symptoms, of workers rights abuses.
“Taking a series of key supply chains right down to raw material production, we will seek to understand and then tackle the factors that contribute to exploitation,” said Mcallister. “These may include company purchasing practices, unhelpful government policies or prevailing attitudes towards trade unions. "
A new grant from the government department for international development (DFID) of £1.2m over next three years will provide funds to help resource the approach.
Collaborative work has already started among ETI’s member companies, trade unions and NGOs to identify and map supply chains in each of three broad product category groups: food and farming, hard goods and household, and apparel and garments. Goods and Household and Apparel and Garments.
Programmes of work within each product category will start in December.
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