Develop company policies and assessment processes for responsible recruitment

• Commit to the employer pays principle within your company and supply chains, which means that employers pay the full costs associated with recruitment.
• Develop a labor recruiter assessment to cover topics such as:
  • Payment of recruitment fees
  • On-boarding, orientation, and training
  • Wages and benefits
  • Loans, deposits, and deductions
  • Housing
  • Grievance mechanisms/worker feedback and communication
  • Humane treatment
  • Document retention

Work with suppliers to establish responsible recruitment practices

• Train suppliers on common human rights risks and red flags tied to recruitment, including:
  • Underpayment or delayed payment of wages
  • Labor recruiters having access to workers’ bank accounts, which could result in: 
    • Forced and/or illegal deductions
    • Workers being uninformed or misinformed about wage rates and deductions
    • Lack of pay slips 
  • Workers charged recruiter fees for on-site management
  • Workers induced or encouraged to take loans from the recruiter or the facility at excessive interest rates or unreasonable terms of repayment
  • Workers required to lodge deposits before taking up employment and during employment
  • Workers ill-informed about the terms or the full amount of loans or deductions
  • Automatic deductions for loan payments are made against workers’ salaries 
• Work with your supply chain partners to assess and correct any unintended, negative effects on workers through the recruitment process 
• Track labor brokers who are known to charge workers fees, and commit other violations, and ensure that these labor brokers are not used in the future.
• Partner with trusted external recruitment agencies, throughout your supply chain, that implement ILO guidelines or move recruitment efforts in-house.
• Commit to repatriating workers within your company and/or supply chains so at the end of their tenure with the company, facility, farm, or vessel, they do not face the risk of being stranded. 
  • Establish and implement processes to repatriate workers upon the termination of their contracts, regardless of which party initiates the termination. 
  • Refuse to leave workers in a country where they do not have legal documents or protections. 
  • Consider bearing or repaying the costs of repatriation in certain instances in a way that is fair to workers (e.g., the worker has legal protections in the travel countries, a fair agreement of this nature was stipulated in the contract, etc.).
• Align your purchasing practices to reinforce your commitment to responsible recruitment through your sourcing relationships and how you buy product.
  • Provide incentives, such as a price premium or increased purchasing commitments, to those suppliers who implement the employer pays principle.
  • Work with suppliers to calculate the true cost of recruitment and agree on an appropriate markup to help cover the labor provider’s management and processing costs.

• Eliminating Recruitment and Employment Fees Charged to Workers from Responsible Recruitment Toolkit
• ILO Guidance: Recruitment Agencies from ILO
• General Principles and Operational Guidelines for Fair Recruitment and Definition of Recruitment Fees and Related Costs from ILO
• Fair Hiring Toolkit from Verité

Tips

• Share any information you gather about labor recruiters and common recruitment issues with your suppliers as you do your research; they might not have this information.
• Implementing responsible recruitment practices can be best tackled through a pre-competitive effort coordinated at the regional level, because human rights violations tied to recruitment can be complex and difficult to follow back to the beginning. 
• Consider finding an external expert to guide your activities and engagements, because of the sensitivity and often extreme nature of potential HRDD issues.

Example

Case Study: Nike

In August 2008, an investigation by an Australian television channel alleged the exploitation of around 1,200 migrant workers from Bangladesh, Vietnam, and Myanmar in a Hytex Group factory in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The Hytex factory makes t-shirts for Nike, among others. Although the factory met minimum wage requirements, workers were housed in substandard accommodation, had their passports withheld, and were subjected to excessive and unfair monthly wage deductions. The factory withheld passports to compel workers to pay their own employment-permit fees, ordinarily paid by the company. 

Nike immediately investigated, confirmed the claims, and implemented an immediate action plan to protect the rights of workers in its Malaysian supply chain. Nike required Hytex to make the following non-negotiable and immediate changes: (1) Reimburse migrant workers for fees associated with employment; (2) pay all future fees associated with employment as a cost of doing business; (3) provide airfare for workers wishing to return home, irrespective of contract requirements; (4) move workers into new Nike-inspected and approved housing; (5) provide workers with immediate and unrestricted access to their passports; and (6) provide workers with access to a 24-hour Nike hotline to report violations. 

Nike also committed to review its entire Malaysian contract factory base and require factories to institute these same policies. In addition, Nike has engaged with a local NGO, Tenaganita, to implement management training programs in Nike supplier factories, aiming for improved treatment of migrant workers.

Enable Worker-led Efforts primarily developed, implemented, and monitored by workers 

• Workers who are enabled and empowered, particularly when they can organize and enact collective bargaining, have better protected rights and improved conditions. Here are some things your company can do to enable worker-led approaches in seafood: 
  • Align supply chain policies, practices, and commitments to uphold the right to freedom of association and collective bargaining. 
  • Require seafood workers to be educated and trained on their rights and contribute resources to make it happen; you can do this by partnering with a local civil society organization or NGO. 
  • Require employers to collaborate with seafood workers on the creation of a code of conduct, which should include support for the ability to organize. 
  • Require and support the implementation of a trustworthy grievance mechanism, remediation processes, and associated training as part of job training.
  • Prioritize purchasing from suppliers and countries that have safeguards in place to protect the right to organize. 
  • Consider added incentives for suppliers showing stronger workplace commitments. 
  • Require employers to adopt anti-retaliation policies to protect workers who organize and require supervisors to participate in associated training. 
  • Require Wi-Fi access for seafood workers on vessels, with an access agreement that includes terms, hours of use, and privacy stipulations; this access ensures freedom of communication and the ability to access grievance mechanisms.

Encourage freedom of association

• The ability to organize gives workers more agency and is a fundamental right as outlined in the UN Guiding Principles. 
• Companies and unions do have aligned goals: to eliminate human rights abuses and labor exploitation and to encourage industry stability. Companies should foster relationships built on transparency, effective communication, and commitment to protecting worker rights. Groups like the International Union of Food Workers can help you get in contact with local unions, where they exist. 
• Worker representatives play a significant role in raising safety, health, and well-being standards in their workplaces; ensuring that child labor is not tolerated; and identifying modern slavery risks.
• Educate and train leaders within your company, and your suppliers on the benefits of working with unions and other worker-led organizations.

• “What is ‘Worker Voice’ in the Context of Global Supply Chains?” from Issara Institute
• Model Operational Guidelines for Wi-Fi Access and Fishers’ Rights on Distant Water Fishing Vessels from Wi-Fi Now for Fishers’ Rights
• Freedom of association & collective bargaining implementation roadmap from Ethical Trading Initiative

Tips

• When developing human rights risk mitigation strategies, consult and involve those most impacted, such as workers. 
• When resolving challenges within your operations, take steps to involve workers, since, as those closest to the product source, they will be able to innovate and/or execute solutions. This is one of the most effective ways to enable worker autonomy and agency and benefit overall operations. Reward workers who bring forward solutions.

Give workers access to trusted, effective grievance mechanisms

• Employers should adopt anti-retaliation policies with associated training for supervisors, to protect worker confidentiality and prevent retaliation, recrimination, and dismissal for those who report issues. 
• Grievance procedures and remediation policies should be put into place in your company and supply chains if they are missing and communicated to workers.
• A time-bound process that ensures credible remedy should be followed by verification to assure workers that remediation has occurred. 
• At a minimum, workers should be trained on how to use your grievance reporting tool and what will happen after an issue is reported. 
• A case management system should be available to workers who raise issues in order to ensure follow up and communication, and safeguard them from threats or retribution. 
• Partnerships with external technical experts can be useful, and you can leverage local stakeholder support to resolve grievances and implement improvements. 
• The costs of establishing and managing grievance systems and remediation should be incorporated into the costs of business operations; encourage your suppliers to do the same.
• Seafood workers on vessels, must have Wi-Fi access on board, with an access agreement that includes terms, hours of use, and privacy stipulations in order to ensure freedom of communication and the ability to access grievance mechanisms. Workers should have the same level of access to Wi-Fi as the captain.

• Designing and Implementing Effective Company-Based Grievance Mechanisms from United Nations Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner
• Doing Business with Respect to Human Rights, ch. 3.8, “Remediation and Grievance Mechanisms” from the Global Perspectives Project 
• Effective Modern Slavery Grievance Mechanisms from Global Compact Network Australia
• Modern Operational Guidelines for WiFi Access and Fishers’ Rights on Distant Water Fishing Vessels from Wi-Fi Now for Fishers’ Rights
• Access to Remedy: Practical Guidance for Companies from Ethical Trading Initiative
• Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights: Access to Remedy from United Nations Human Rights

Tips

• Grievance procedures should be easy to access and use, and response to any grievance should be immediate. 
• Workers should have the right to be supported or represented by a trade union, or any other person of their choosing.

Example

Case Study: Thai Union

Thai Union has reportedly developed several grievance channels, including a human resources clinic, a phone line that allows workers to text or speak with HR directly, elected worker welfare committees that hold meetings to discuss worker welfare issues, suggestion boxes, and a hotline. Each Thai Union facility tends to have at least two of these grievance channels available to workers. Thai Union cited proactive channels of communication (such as the ability of HR representatives to speak with workers on the factory floor) as one of the more effective ways for capturing grievances, as issues can be caught before they escalate. Thai Union directs its grievance channels internally to human resources, to increase employer-employee dialogue and trust. 

Thai Union reports engaging with the Migrant Worker Rights Network to protect the rights of migrant workers, since they are the most vulnerable to modern slavery in the fishing industry. This collaboration has included promoting and supporting the election of migrant workers to worker committees to ensure that their voices are represented, and interviewing workers to investigate issues such as the payment of recruitment fees. Thai Union also stated that it engages with the International Transport Workers Federation and Labour Promotion Network to support the protection of worker rights.

Work with suppliers to address human rights violations quickly

• Identify exactly where the violation took place and at what level of the supply chain. 
• Analyze and verify the problem, involving those impacted in the process.
• Include those impacted and all levels of management when designing solutions in order to address root cause and prevent further issues.
• Work with suppliers to respond to grievances or human rights abuses with a time-bound corrective action plan. 
  • Work through your supply chain partners in order to prevent confusion and avoid undermining other efforts
  • Resolve the operational issues contributing to the grievance and reduce the likelihood of similar problems by addressing the root cause. 
  • Consider potential roadblocks and engage with those who can help you move past them.
  • Determine milestones and a process to verify that changes have been made.  
• Support implementation and remediation by providing training, bringing in needed resources and/or expertise, and/or advocating with government or other influencers to encourage necessary action.
• Go back to those impacted to verify that changes have been made and remediation has been successful.
• Document steps that were taken to investigate and remedy the claim, tracking the outcomes and settlements of worker grievances.

Enable remediation 

• Know that remediation for workers can range from reimbursements for illegal or unethical out-of-pocket expenses and immediate needs such as food, clothing, and health and safety measures to more involved, long-term needs including formal employment, psychosocial support, socioeconomic stability, and legal assistance.
• Make both civil and criminal remedies available to workers, including the costs of return fare and lodging for those engaged in proceedings where the harm occurred.
• Ensure employers pay workers any wages that they are owed from their time of employment.
• Consider contributing toward the cost of reimbursements to workers, even if you are not the direct employer.
• Consider additional recommendations for remediating human rights violations linked to recruitment practices like:
  • Working with suppliers to reimburse workers for contract clauses that violate the employer pays principle, such as recruitment fees, involuntary deductions, and loans with excessive interest. 
  • Establishing relationships with country of origin consulates in major fishing countries to check that workers are properly reimbursed.
  • Requiring proof (invoices, receipts, etc.) that workers were properly repatriated at the end of their tenure.

Address egregious and zero-tolerance issues, such as child labor, forced labor, or physical abuse

• Reach out immediately to the supplier when potential zero-tolerance issues are identified so you can begin the remediation process.
• Pause sourcing while you investigate the issue and extract those impacted and get them to safety, as needed.
• Report the human rights violation, as necessary, to relevant authorities.
• Work with international and local organizations and local authorities to verify the violation, identify the best course of action to remove the victim(s) from harm, and begin remedy.
• Work with the supplier to implement remediation plans and steps to prevent recurrence. 
• Follow up to ensure that the actions have been carried out and preventative steps have been implemented; conduct physical site visits to verify the actions taken.

Manage procurement relationships

• Human rights violations are a collective risk for the whole supply chain, so it is best to address them collaboratively with your supply chain partners through open communication.
  • Attempt to implement improvements with suppliers, because ending the relationship reduces the likelihood that the human rights violation will be addressed. Termination of a supplier relationship should only be considered if the supplier refuses to address the human rights violation.
  • Ensure suppliers have the necessary support and resources to implement improvements. 
  • Set agreed-upon consequences for chronic failure to meet commitments within the agreed-upon time frame.
  • Include positive incentives for reaching improvement milestones.

• A Guide to Corrective Action and Systems Improvement Planning from Verité
• Remediation and Operational-Level Grievance Mechanisms from IHRB

Tips

• Connect issues and solutions to any relevant broader systems management improvement plans.
• Use pr-ecollaborative relationships and pre-competitive organizations to create additional leverage for remediation with suppliers and others.
• Act as a good faith facilitator between suppliers, local groups, and workers to build sustainable solutions and implement remediation.
• Try to support locals, particularly workers, in taking the lead for the greatest insights and the most effective end results; avoid leading yourself, unless absolutely necessary. 

Example

Case Study: Patagonia factory policy

Once a full investigation has been conducted and the forced labor concern properly confirmed, Patagonia’s factory disciplinary policy would be activated. A formal remediation letter would be sent requiring a written reply within the next 24 hours stating factory management is willing to address all concerns and agrees to comply to fully remediate the situation. The CR and sourcing teams may extend the factory probation period until all concerns are sustainably remediated. Per the laws of the countries involved, the incident would be reported to the proper authorities. The Fair Labor Association (FLA) would be kept abreast of Patagonia’s findings and next steps. If Patagonia has decided to partner with another brand then this process will be done jointly as agreed upon by both parties and in compliance with relevant US laws. Regarding victim reparations: In all cases of confirmed human trafficking, slavery and/or any form of forced labor, Patagonia would work with international and local expert organizations and authorities to ensure the worker is offered safe harbor and provided with financial and other assistance and support. Factory management will be expected to work with a local NGO expert to analyze the identified issues. Once the root cause analysis process has been satisfied, Patagonia will work with the factory to develop sustainable corrective action plans and timelines. Due to the complexities of the issues and symptoms of human trafficking, Patagonia will assist the factory in designing practical and operational solutions and consider adopting policies and processes that are preventative in nature and not simply reactionary. Patagonia may consult with the FLA or other subject matter experts for support. Patagonia will monitor the factory’s progress according to the corrective action timelines and a physical follow-up audit will be conducted at appropriate intervals and unannounced surveillance may be arranged. In all cases, interviews will be conducted with both affected and non-affected workers. Monitoring will continue until the factory and/or labor broker has demonstrated adequate and sustainable remediation. Once this point is reached, monitoring will continue on an annual basis, at minimum, and the factory would be taken off probation status.