Piloting the United States Department of Agriculture Guidelines for Eliminating Child Labor and Forced Labor in Turkey's Hazel
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Piloting the United States Department of Agriculture Guidelines for Eliminating Child Labor and Forced Labor in Turkey’s Hazelnut Supply Chain PROJECT HIGHLIGHTS This report tells the story of Nestlé, the world’s largest food and beverage company, and its two hazelnut suppliers in Turkey, Olam and Balsu, as they pilot-tested the United States Department of Agriculture Guidelines for Eliminating Child Labor and Forced Labor in Agricultural Supply Chains (USDA Guidelines) in Turkey’s hazelnut supply chain. This project was a partnership between the three companies and the Fair Labor Association (FLA), funded by the United States Department of Labor (USDOL). Hazelnuts are grown in the Black Sea region of Turkey. In the summer, tens of thousands of ABOUT THE USDA GUIDELINES seasonal migrant workers, mostly from the Southeast region bordering Syria, travel across the country to harvest hazelnuts for 30-45 days. Children often work alongside their parents in the • Developed by a multi-stakeholder STANDARDS hazelnut gardens. consultative group appointed by the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, the USDA Guidelines were officially adopted in 2011. They are organized around seven elements. SUPPLY CHAIN MAPPING • The USDA Guidelines embody a practical AND RISK MANAGEMENT approach for companies developing internal management systems to address child and COLLABORATION STRONG PROGRAMS UNDERSTANDING PROCESSES forced labor-related issues. MAXIMIZES IMPACT DEPEND ON WORKERS’ NEEDS AND PROGRAMS COMMUNICATION SOLID DATA IS CRUCIAL REQUIRE FLEXIBILITY • The USDA Guidelines provide a robust Addressing systemic framework to engage stakeholders across issues like child labor In addition to commodity Not every workforce faces Risk assessment and agricultural supply chains. and forced labor requires mapping, robust data the same human rights standard setting are a multi-stakeholder collection on worker issues. In this project, continuous processes. • The USDA Guidelines have many similarities approach. By working demographics, migrant companies needed to Companies must take to the methodology developed and applied MONITORING together on this project, workers’ movements, and understand the unique into account changes by the FLA during the past decade. companies, farmers, labor workplace conditions challenges confronting a in the local environment contractors, local and provide critical context young, seasonal, migrant and periodically review national government, and for companies as they workforce in order to their systems and THE USDA GUIDELINES ARE ALIGNED civil society groups were assess risks and design address their needs. approaches. Adjusting able to achieve greater strong remediation To build a successful remedial interventions to WITH OTHER VOLUNTARY PRINCIPLES REMEDIATION results. Collaboration programs to protect program that protects take advantage of new AND FRAMEWORKS INCLUDING: is essential to ensure human rights throughout workers, companies need information acquired long-term sustainability their supply chains. functioning channels for through research • The United Nations Guiding Principles and scalability of social workers to communicate or exchanges with on Business and Human Rights compliance programs. their concerns. stakeholders boosts INTERNAL REVIEW their effectiveness. • The OECD-FAO Guidance for Responsible Agricultural Supply Chains • The Principles of Fair Labor and Nestlé, Olam, and Balsu successfully demonstrated the effectiveness of the USDA Guidelines Responsible Sourcing developed INDEPENDENT as a practical framework to help agricultural firms, large and small, national or multi-national, by the FLA THIRD-PARTY REVIEW to improve their social compliance systems and reduce the risks of child and forced labor in • The U.S. Department of Labor their supply chains. The USDA Guidelines are applicable in any country and to any agricultural Comply Chain: Business Tools for commodity, from coffee in Guatemala to palm oil in Malaysia, cotton in India to cocoa in Labor Compliance in Global Supply Cote d’Ivoire. Chains application 2 FAIR LABOR ASSOCIATION HARVESTING THE FUTURE 3 WHAT IS CHILD LABOR? • Child labor refers to engagement of WHY ADDRESSING CHILD children in employment prohibited under International Labour Organization (ILO) AND FORCED LABOR MATTERS Conventions 138 and 182. TO BUSINESS • ILO sets the minimum working age for children at 15 for most activities and 18 for hazardous work. Moving beyond voluntary guidelines like the Consumers, increasingly selective in their USDA Guidelines, new emerging legislative purchasing behavior, will continue to drive • Young laborers must be protected from frameworks around the world require change and pressure companies to embrace conditions that can harm their physical, companies to disclose their supply chains, sustainable and ethical business practices. mental, emotional, or moral wellbeing. FACTS AND FIGURES ABOUT identify human rights issues, and address CHILD LABOR IN AGRICULTURE them wherever they occur in their • They must not work excessive hours. supply chain. • Around the world, 152 million children • ILO Conventions do not ban age-appropriate aged 5-17 are in child labor (ILO) tasks that pose low risk and do not interfere with the child’s development. • 107.5 million are employed in agriculture (subsistence or commercial farming, herding, fishing, forestry, animal A survey of 3,023 consumers aged 18+ WHAT IS FORCED LABOR? husbandry, and aquaculture). Sixty-nine in the United States, the United Kingdom, percent work within their family unit and Italy shows that consumers are ILO Convention 29 defines forced work as (ILO) increasingly sensitive to responsible 67% say eliminating the “all work or service which is exacted from any person under the menace of any penalty • In Turkey, in 2012, nearly 900,000 sourcing and it affects their use of child labor is an and for which the said person has not offered children were employed, including purchasing behavior: urgent issue to address himself voluntarily.” Indicators of forced labor • 292,000 children aged 6–14 are often more subtle and can include: • 601,000 children aged 15-17 • excessive hours of work or forced overtime • 45 percent who worked in agriculture believe companies 92% 48% say they purchase • non-payment of minimum wages should be transparent about hazelnuts always or often • 31 percent who were employed product sourcing • deductions from wages in services • payment of wages delayed • 24 percent who worked in industry or withheld indefinitely (Turksat: Turkish Statistical Institute) • debt owed to employer or recruiter 74% say they try to consider whether 55% • deception about the nature of work purchase products that nuts are responsibly sourced or location are responsibly sourced before making purchasing decisions • physical or psychological coercion • abuse of vulnerability • lack of access to identity 80% say they are likely 48% would boycott or travel paperwork to seek out products or products upon learning • dependence on employer or recruiter ingredients that follow that a company sourced for housing, food, etc. standards or regulations hazelnuts from farms that that ensure suppliers employ child or forced labor, A single indicator may not signal forced labor. do not employ child or and 33 percent would urge Taken collectively, the presence of these and forced labor others to follow suit other indicators might point to a serious forced labor issue. 4 FAIR LABOR ASSOCIATION HARVESTING THE FUTURE 5 TWO MILLION FARMERS, TENS OF A MULTI-STAKEHOLDER APPROACH THOUSANDS OF HARVESTERS Since 2012, the three FLA-affiliated firms— Nestlé, Olam, and Balsu—have been building Every summer, tens of thousands of seasonal internal monitoring mechanisms with the FLA 2,470 287 agricultural workers converge on the green to address decent work principles, including Harvest Farmers THE FAIR LABOR ASSOCIATION (FLA) hills of Turkey’s Black Sea region to harvest is a non- child and forced labor, in their hazelnut supply profit organization established in 1999 with the workers received chain. hazelnuts, a commodity that accounts for mission to combine the efforts of business, civil reached training 20 percent of Turkey’s agricultural exports. society organizations, colleges and universities to 219 Turkey is the world’s leading producer promote and protect workers’ rights and improve The USDOL-funded project provided the Labor contractors of hazelnuts, currently supplying some working conditions globally through adherence to companies with an opportunity to deepen 509 received training 70 percent of the global market. international standards. their understanding of systemic issues, pilot Children new interventions, scale up existing efforts, provided 256 safe spaces The majority of harvesters are from the and broaden their impact in cooperation with Community Southeast region bordering Syria, and they the FLA, public agencies, and civil society members attended tend to travel as family groups, moving from organizations. trainings 89 crop to crop for 6-8 months per year. Children Labor THE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR’S BUREAU OF 139 of migrant families often work alongside Between December 2015 and 2018, the project contractors INTERNATIONAL LABOR AFFAIRS (ILAB) promotes a Government their parents, contributing to the household partners carried out activities in the Black Sea fair global playing field for workers in the United registered officials received income, to the detriment of their personal and Southeast regions that have: