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Company Response

22 May 2024

Author:
By the Co-Operative

Co-operative response to calls to meet costs of Employer Pays Principle across supply chains

[…]

…Our approach to protecting the fundamental rights of workers in our supply chains is shared in our Human Rights & Ethical Trade Position Statement and Sound Sourcing Code, whilst our Grievance & Remedy Policy outlines the responsibility Co-op shares with suppliers…

In 2018 we announced our commitment eliminate unfair and illegal recruitment fees in our global supply chain in our Future of Food Strategy. As we shared in our recent Modern Slavery Statement, in 2023 we continued our work to understand and map the use of recruitment fees in our supply chains. This included jointly commissioning a study into responsible recruitment and the Employer Pays Principle (EPP) in the global tuna processing sector and supporting investigations in the UK…

One of our key priorities is to improve working conditions for workers through the UK Seasonal Worker Scheme (SWS) and we have played an active role in supporting the creation of the SWS Taskforce where Co-op is part of the governance group…

We welcome the introduction of the Collaborative Action Required (CAR) status in the forthcoming SMETA 7.0. We will continue to work collaboratively with our suppliers to drive continuous improvement and allow time to work together to address systemic issues…

[…]

Timeline