Human Rights
Our Berry Integrity Mission is to promote human rights, mitigate human rights risks, and remediate adverse impacts on human rights throughout our supply chain. We require our suppliers to comply with our Ethical Trade and Human Rights Policy to promote improvements in working conditions for the people who pick, pack, and deliver our berries.
We work collaboratively to share ideas and best practices within the industry to overcome today’s challenges of mitigating against ethical risks in food production. For example, we are proactive members of FNET (Food Network for Ethical Trade) and the Spanish Ethical Forum.
We have identified strategic KPIs and review our progress using the Stronger Together direct reporting tool. We are leading the way amongst others in the programme, clearly demonstrating our investment and commitment.
WE ARE CORPORATE PARTNERS OF SCOTLAND AGAINST MODERN SLAVERY
The corporate partner group has representation and participation within the Scottish Government’s Human Trafficking and Exploitation Strategy Team. Partners can also provide practical assistance by offering sustainable work to victims of modern slavery.
IDENTIFY AND IRRADICATE UNFAIR RECRUITMENT FEES FROM OUR SUPPLY CHAIN
We’re embedding the Responsible Recruitment Toolkit to drive ethical and professional recruitment within our supply chain. By benchmarking our progress against others, we are delighted to be leading the way. Our progress demonstrates a positive impact on people’s working lives, including:
- How they are recruited – removing the possibility of recruitment fees being charged and having accurate information about the job;
- How they are paid – having accurate payslips and wages;
- Improving the quality of accommodation and transport offered to them;
- Having access to appropriate grievance mechanisms when there is an issue.
Responsible Recruitment Toolkit
MAKE WORKER VOICE CENTRAL TO OUR OPERATIONAL DUE DILIGENCE PROCESSES
Since 2019, we’ve conducted a series of employee surveys using the &Wider tool to facilitate an additional channel for “employee voice”. This has enabled us to address issues which may not have been identified otherwise.
Our worker committee seeks to be representative of employees across our business, with at least one representative from each of our sites, to help us improve the employment relationship within our company.
Leading by example, we encourage all our suppliers to adopt this approach to improve working conditions across our supply chain.
BUILD RESILIENCE AND CAPACITY OF OUR SUPPLIERS THROUGH BESPOKE LEARNING INTERVENTIONS
We are conducting training needs analysis and have regular dialogue with all our suppliers so that we can provide practical support and a range of bespoke human rights due diligence resources, which will have a positive impact on the working lives of their people.