Nestle partners with Fair Labor Association
29 November 2011 – Nestlé has decided to work with the Fair Labor Association (FLA) to investigate whether children are working on cocoa farms supplying its factories.
The FLA is a collaboration of socially responsible companies, civil society organisations and experts, working together to promote adherence to international labour standards. Nestlé is the first food company to apply to be a member.
The FLA’s work with Nestlé on cocoa will begin early next year in Côte d’Ivoire, the world’s largest exporter of the raw material. The FLA will send independent experts to Côte d’Ivoire to examine Nestlé’s cocoa supply chain. Where they find evidence of child labour, the FLA will identify the root causes and advise Nestlé how to address them in ways that are sustainable and lasting. The FLA’s role will be to provide expertise to help ensure Nestlé’s efforts to eliminate child labour are more effective and transparent.
In the first phase the FLA will send its team of independent experts to the country to map the supply chain. The results of the assessment, which will be made public in the spring of 2012, will guide future Nestlé operations.
“Child labour has no place in our supply chain,” says Nestlé’s executive vice president for Operations José Lopez. “We cannot solve the problem on our own, but by working with a partner like the FLA we can make sure our efforts to address it are targeted where they are needed most.”
In the second phase, Nestlé will work with the FLA other stakeholders including the government in Côte d’Ivoire to address any problems that are identified.
The FLA will assess the impact of these efforts and report publicly on the progress made regularly. Auret van Heerden, president of the FLA, welcomed the chance to work with Nestlé on labour issues.“Our approach shifts the emphasis from auditing and policing to finding out what the problem is,” he explained. “We can help build up the capacity on the ground in Côte d’Ivoire to deal with issues we find, and then measure whether the remedial efforts are working.”
