Commitments & Achievements

Our members have been long committed to promoting decent working conditions worldwide but recognise that the eradication of forced labour remains a key challenge.

This journey began in 2016 with our retailer and manufacturer members coming together to drive collaboration globally and thereby address forced labour as one of the most pressing social issues of our time. This commitment was confirmed with the January 2016 announcement of a new, Board-approved Social Resolution on Forced Labour. The resolution is the first industry commitment of its kind.

This was followed up later in 2016 with the introduction of the Forced Labour Priority Industry Principles, which look to address three of the most problematic, yet often common, employment practices across the world that can lead to cases of forced labour.

Today, as part of the Human Rights Coalition – Working to End Forced Labour, our members have committed to a series of steps that will support the implementation of our resolution and adoption of the Priority Industry Principles.

Coalition members commit to activate and implement the following objectives targeting the eradication of forced labour:

1. Establish and deploy HRDD systems in our Own Operations with the aim of reaching 100% coverage by 2025.
2. Activate pre-competitive practices (e.g. roundtable discussions and open source training materials, etc.) to support responsible recruitment markets using the leverage of our own operations and collective engagement in selected geographies / commodities by 2025.
3. Collaborate with selected suppliers starting with palm oil supply chains to develop and deploy HRDD systems from the refinery to the plantation level by 2023.
4. Engage relevant stakeholders to enable the adoption and enforcement of measures with governments to eliminate forced labour.
5. Act with relevant industry, multi-stakeholder groups and inter-governmental organisations to enhance cooperation and share information and resource openly.
6. Support transparency and disclosure efforts on risks and challenges in addressing forced labour within own operations and associated with supply chains.

Building on momentum from our ground-breaking Forced Labour Resolution, the three Priority Industry Principles will help to prioritise action to address the primary drivers of forced labour within the consumer goods industry and beyond.

While certain employment and recruitment practices may not initially appear problematic, in aggregate or combined with other forms of leverage, they can result in forced labour, particularly among vulnerable workers.

We will take active measures to apply these Principles across our global value chains and own operations, to cases where such practices may lead to forced labour. We will seek to apply these Principles to all workers regardless of their employment status, location, contractual arrangements or role. We will do this as part of our collective journey to advance the human rights of workers and positively shape global labour markets.