11th July 2018, London, SECLG Meeting MSC - Labour Requirements On-Shore Supply Chains Julia Seewald - MSC Supply Chain Standards Team

The project‘s objective

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Mitigate the risk that MSC certified organisations and their subcontractors use forced or child labour, to provide greater assurance that MSC certified product is not associated with egregious labour violations.

Project Objective:

Background

• Since 2014/15 stakeholder pressure on MSC include labour in scope

• Spring 2017 public consultation on a self-declaration with complaints process and labour panel towards a risk based requirement for auditing

• General support for self-disclosure for fisheries, but look into other approaches for on-shore supply chain project split into at-sea and on-shore

• Stakeholder workshop November 2017 agreed on self-disclosure form and phased approach for at-sea entities and risk-based approach for on-site audit for on-shore entities

• MSC targeted consultation work / impact assessments mainly in China and SE-Asia and with SEDEX and amfori BSCI

• June 2018 TAB 28 and MSC Board approve on-shore proposal for final public consultation

Self disclosure template for fisheries and at-sea operations

1. Composition of fishery client group

2. Responsibility for labour regulation

3. Flag status and law on forced and child labour

4. Risk identification, mitigation and remediation

5. Crew recruitment

6. Crew contract

7. Engagement with fish worker groups

8. Audits and labour inspections

9. National minimum age requirements

10. Repatriation

11. Debt bondage

12. Crew voice

13. Identification documents

The proposal

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Proposal for land-based supply chains:

A risk-based approach to require certificate holders in high-risk countries and engaged in certain activities (processing, (re-)packing and off-loading) to undergo an on-site audit against a recognised 3rd party labour program.

Considerations

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• Scale of impact on full range of certificate holders

• Additional burden on small-scale entities

• Possible unintended effects of using a country-risk evaluation

• Applicability to other users of MSC CoC

• Recognising 3rd party labour programs comes with opportunities & challenges

• Impact on success of MSC‘s core CoC program

Proposed Process

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Country Risk Assessment

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• Rationale: Reduce burden where risk is low

• Target countries with weak legal framework or legal enforcement

• Simple and transparent

• Using publicly available information

• Using information compiled by competent authorities/organisations

• Not requiring individual evaluation/judgement by CAB or MSC

Country Risk Assessment Criteria

Preliminary Country Risk Assessment Table

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Recognized 3rd party labour audits

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• SEDEX SMETA (with additional requirements on auditor competency and audit frequency)

• Amfori BSCI

• SA8000

Approved list of recognized 3rd party labour audits

Minimum Requirements and conditions for suspension

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• On-site labour audit not passed within 12 months

• SA8000: CoC suspension as soon as SA8000 certificate suspended or withdrawn

• Amfori BSCI: CoC suspension as soon as „zero tolerance status“ raised or audit frequency not followed

• SEDEX SMETA: CoC suspension as soon as Business Critical issue found or audit frequency not followed

• CoC holder needs to self-suspend inform the CAB if any of the above occurs

• If CoC holder misses to self-suspend, 3 month suspension as penalty

Additional MSC-SEDEX audit

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• Concerns raised by stakeholders about additional audit costs for small-scale entities

• Most companies producing for international market have social audit already, not the smaller producers for domestic market

• Could have adverse effect on MSC‘s ambition to get more small-scale entities in Global South and emerging markets into program and develop markets for MSC products

• Shortened social audit would reduce necessary audit days and therefore costs

Why?

Proposal for shortened MSC-SEDEX audit

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1.Freely Chosen Employment

1.1 There is no forced, bonded or involuntary prison labour.

1.2 Workers are not required to lodge “deposits” or their identity papers with their employer and are free to leave their employer after reasonable notice.

4.Child Labour and Young Workers

4.1 There shall be no new recruitment of child labour.

4.2 Companies shall develop or participate in and contribute to policies and programmes which provide for the transition of any child found to be performing child labour to enable her or him to attend and remain in quality education until no longer a child.

4.3 Children and young persons under 18 shall not be employed at night or in hazardous conditions.

4.4 These policies and procedures shall conform to the provisions of the relevant ILO Standards.

Proposed Shortened MSC-SEDEX Requirements

Implementation Timeline

Feb’18 Mar’18 Apr’18 May’18 Jun’18 Jul’18 Aug’18 Sep’ 18 Oct’18 Nov’18 Dec’18 Jan’19 Feb’19 Aug’19

Final 60-day Public Consultation 15th Aug – 15th Oct 2018

Release of CoC documents Feb 2019

MSC Board sign-off Jan 2019

Targeted consultation, workshops/webinars, impact assessments, benchmarking of recognized labour programs, MSC labour criteria development Feb-May 2018

TAB WG & MSC Board sign-off for consultation Jun 2018

TAB sign-off Dec 2018

New Requirements become effective – 12 months grace period Aug 2019

Review consultation feedback and final changes to proposal Oct-Nov 2018

www.msc.org

For more information contact

Marine Stewardship Council 2018

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Thank you

Julia Seewald Supply Chain Standards Team Julia.Seewald@msc.org