-Consumer goods companies publish practical guidance on reimbursement of recruitment fees paid by workers

PARIS and AMSTERDAM, Oct. 28, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The Consumer Goods Forum (CGF) liaison, in partnership with AIM-Progress, today launched the new liaison to support business action around the issue of consumer fees. hiring paid by workers. As workers in global supply chains - in particular migrant workers - may be forced to pay fees to recruitment agencies to secure employment, they are at risk of falling into debt bondage, which can lead to forced labor cases. link, about a fifth of those subjected to forced labor exploitation in the private economy are in a situation of debt bondage.

This Guide is intended to be a practical tool for all companies to help ensure that their hiring and employment practices adhere to the CGF's Priority Industry Principles (PIPs), which were launched in 2017 and define the most common, yet problematic, employment practices which can give rise to cases of forced labour. The PIPs state that:

Today's Guide is a powerful tool to help companies respect these Principles, especially the second one - no worker should pay for a job - as well as the Employer Pays Principle, in their employment practices. The Guide is designed to be updated as the global sustainability landscape evolves, companies improve their liaison, and more actors undergo the redress process. With its step-by-step guidelines on how to reimburse workers for recruitment fees and related costs, the HRC and AIM-Progress invite all relevant actors from different sectors to use this Guide as a tool to strengthen their approach to HRDD, especially in areas where recruitment fees are common practice, link.

The Guide was released during an annual CGF Sustainable Retail Summit session on "Industry Action on Responsible Recruitment to Fight Forced Labour," featuring Didier Bergeret, The Consumer Goods Forum; Heidi Koester Oliveira, Mars, Inc.; Anbinh X. Phan, Walmart; Benjamin Gatland, The Heineken Company; and Rosey Hurst, Impactt. The Guide is derived from and aligned with the Impactt links.

As an initiative of 30 of the world's largest consumer goods manufacturers and retailers, HRC is committed to helping achieve fair and decent working conditions around the world by eradicating forced labor from its supply chains. HRC's work continues CGF's long history of engagement on the issue of forced labor within consumer goods supply chains, building on the CGF Social Resolution on Forced Labour, the first of its kind in the industry; its Priority Industrial Principles; and ongoing relationships with key industry stakeholders.

AIM-PROGRESS is a global initiative of FMCG manufacturers and their common suppliers with a mission to positively impact people's lives and ensure respect for human rights, while adding value to our members and to their supply chains. This is done through four areas: the human rights priorities and respective working groups, the regional hubs, the mutual recognition work stream to create synergies in approaches, and the development work stream. capacity building to equip our members with the knowledge and ability to execute robust responsible and sustainable sourcing programs.

Didier Bergeret, Director of Sustainability at CGF, said: "With the publication by the ILO of new calculations on modern slavery showing that there are more people worldwide in cases of forced labor compared to 2016, all employers have responsibility to step up actions to ensure their workers are fairly recruited and employed. This Guide offers step-by-step advice for companies on how to address the important issue of recruitment fees."

Louise Herring, Executive Director of AIM-Progress, said: "Responsible sourcing is at the heart of AIM-Progress and its members' work on human rights. We recognize that providing practical guidance, along with practical support, to suppliers and recruitment intermediaries is critical to improving supply chain practices. We hope this Guide will support further collaboration between supply chain partners to remediate and address the root causes of recruitment fees."

Heidi Koester Oliveira, Global Director, Social Impact, Mars, said: "Responsible sourcing is not the norm in certain global supply chains, which is why Mars is working with major brands and retailers to change systems, support suppliers and demonstrate that progress is possible We believe that vulnerable workers can be hired responsibly - without incurring fees and expenses - when the true cost of hiring is shared across the value chain This Guide can help companies to stand up to recruitment fees when they are identified, so that we can move forward to focus on government advocacy and new systems, controls and business levers to eliminate this practice."

Rachel Cowburn-Walden, Global Head of Sustainability, Human Rights, Unilever, said: "Unilever supports the launch of this Guide which includes practical steps that, when applied, will help workers, reduce business risk and create a sustainable industry. more responsible hiring.

Rosey Hurst, Founder of Impactt, said: "We welcome the release of this Guide, which has the potential to drive remediation at scale in global supply chains and make a significant contribution to reducing debt bondage and returning hundreds of millions of dollars to workers who have paid fees.

The full guide is available here. To learn more about HRC's work, visit www.tcgfsocial.com.

Acerca de la Human Rights Coalition – Working to End Forced Labour

The CGF Human Rights Coalition – Working to End Forced Labor (HRC) is an action coalition led by the CEO of the Consumer Goods Forum. As an initiative of 30 of the world's largest consumer goods companies, HRC is committed to helping achieve fair and decent working conditions around the world by eradicating forced labor from its supply chains. HRC's work continues CGF's long history of engagement on the issue of forced labor within consumer goods supply chains, building on the CGF Social Resolution on Forced Labour, the first of its kind in the industry; its Priority Industry Principles, and ongoing relationships with key industry stakeholders. For more information about HRC, visit www.tcgfsocial.com.

About the Consumer Goods Forum

The Consumer Goods Forum ("CGF") is a global, peer-to-peer industry network driven by its members to foster the global adoption of practices and standards that serve the consumer goods industry worldwide. It brings together the CEOs and senior management of some 400 retailers, manufacturers, service providers and other stakeholders from 70 countries, reflecting the industry's diversity in geography, size, product category and format. Its member companies have combined sales of €3.5 billion and directly employ nearly 10 million people, with a further 90 million related jobs along the value chain. It is governed by its Board of Directors, made up of more than 55 CEOs from manufacturers and retailers. For more information, visit: www.theconsumergoodsforum.com.

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