Seafood and whitefish producers are in talks with supermarkets and international worker’s rights groups to develop a pilot programme which aims to protect migrant fishers’ rights.
Some of the UK’s leading supermarkets including Tesco’s, Saindbury’s, Aldi and Lidl are in talks to pilot a scheme with the the Seafood Ethics Action (SEA) Alliance, the Scottish White Fish Producers Association (SWFPA), and the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) to bolster the rights of fishers in the UK.
The pilot, which will take place in North-East Scotland, looks to deliver a “worker-driven social responsibility programme,” which would give migrant workers on fishing boats greater abilities to report grievances, and set wage standards.
Working rights within the UK fishing industry have faced increased criticisms in recent months. Law firm Leigh Day launched a judicial review against the government over its visa system for migrant fishers last month, which it claims leaves workers vulnerable to human rights abuses. The law firm expressed concerns over so-called “transit visas”, which it said allow companies to bypass typical immigration controls and worker protections under UK law.
Retailers who sign onto the programme will be alerted to these issues, and be able to refuse to purchase from producers known to have poor rights records.
The ITF’s UK fisheries expert, Chris Williams, told Supply Management that over the last 15 years a “new underclass of migrant worker” has been recruited through transit visas and said the pilot is set to take place over the coming months. However, Williams emphasised the pilot was only a “starting point”.
The SWFPA’s CEO, Mike Park, added that grievance mechanisms and third-party audits have been a particular pain point for the fishing industry.
Park told SM: “The fishing industry has some peculiarities about it that other industries don’t. We work over the horizon where no-one can see our activities, so we require a bespoke model. This has got to be the full chain. It’s got to involve the fishermen, it’s got to involve the processors, it’s got to involve the retailers.”
Park explained he had worked with the Fair Food Program in the US, which looks to improve conditions for farmworkers to understand “best practice” in preventing labour abuse. He explained the SEA Alliance was working with ITF and retailers to adapt the Fair Food Programme to the UK.
Suppliers on the US scheme agree to meet a code of conduct, and any that fail to are suspended from the programme, and cannot sell their products to participating buyers.
Park explained: “You need a consequence to make it work. And that’s why we are pretty much dependent on the retailers, the people that buy the fish to allow us to create consequences.
Everybody’s got to be aligned, with the ultimate consequences that if you are in that scheme, you get a preferential price, and you stay in the marketplace. If you’re not, then the harm to your business would be quite significant.”
The Friedman School, at Tufts University, is helping design and implement the pilot. Assistant professor Jessica Sparks told SM the pilot “will have all the core elements of other worker-driven social responsibility programmes”.
These include a worker-defined code of conduct; peer-to-peer rights education; a 24/7 complaint hotline and resolution/remediation process; an “extremely robust, truly independent” third-party auditing process; legally-binding agreements with market consequences; a price premium that goes to workers; and zero tolerance for retaliation or forced labour.
The code of conduct will also cover how to deal with medical treatment, and what kind of language and behaviour is appropriate in a workplace.