NEW YORK and PARIS – May 31, 2017 – EcoVadis is pleased to announce its support of the Priority Industry Principles on Forced Labour, launched in December 2016 by The Consumer Goods Forum (CGF) to identify and target exploitative practices that lead to bonded and forced labor. Certain employment and recruitment practices, including recruitment fees and document retention, have been identified as problematic in eradicating modern slavery and warrant industry collaboration to end such practices. Bringing together industry leaders, including Mars, Tesco, The Coca-Cola Company, and Walmart, the CGF developed the Priority Industry Principles to help prioritize actions to address the some of the main causes of forced labor.
THE PRIORITY INDUSTRY PRINCIPLES
- Every worker should have freedom of movement. The ability of workers to move freely should not be inhibited by their employer.
- No worker should pay for a job. Fees and costs associated with recruitment and employment should be paid by the employer.
- No worker should be indebted or coerced to work. Workers should work freely, aware of the terms and conditions of their work and paid regularly as agreed.
In supporting the Priority Industry Principles, CGF member companies commit to preventing such practices in their own operations, as well as their value chains, and to collectively promoting the Priority Industry Principles across the consumer goods industry. Given that such practices are particularly prevalent in global supply chains, EcoVadis, the first collaborative platform providing CSR ratings and scorecards for global supply chains, is in a unique position to promote the Principles. EcoVadis is constantly working to address the complex— and often difficult to detect—causes of forced labor in its evaluations of supplier management systems in order to provide buyers with information that they can leverage in their supplier engagement practices. We believe that there is much to be learned through engagement with other organisations and initiatives actively supporting and implementing the Priority Industry Principles and we look forward to the opportunity for direct collaboration with industry peers for the advancement of the principles for workers worldwide.
