This theme measures a company’s approach to reducing the risk of exploitation of the workers in its supply chains by recruitment and employment agencies, eliminating workers’ payment of fees during recruitment processes throughout its supply chains, and protecting the rights of workers in vulnerable conditions, including migrant workers.
Apparel & Footwear
This was one of the two lowest-scoring themes of the benchmark. Forty-three percent of companies in the sector prohibit worker-paid recruitment fees in their supply chains. However, evidence of implementation remained limited, as only eight companies (22%) disclosed repayment of fees to supply chain workers. Only two companies disclosed information on the preventative steps they have taken regarding fees across sourcing countries.
Food & Beverage
Recruitment is amongst the lowest-scoring themes in the benchmark. This comes at a time when the Covid-19 pandemic has brought to light both the dependence of agricultural supply chains on seasonal workers (who are often hired using third-party labor agencies) and the vulnerability of migrant workers to exploitative recruitment and employment practices. Of the companies benchmarked in both 2018 and 2020, improvements can be seen in the number that require that supply chain workers not be charged recruitment fees. There is also more disclosure on monitoring and responsible recruitment, in particular. Six additional companies disclose details of how they support responsible recruitment in their supply chains, and an additional three companies disclose a policy requiring that no worker in their supply chains pays for a job
Information & Communications Technology
Recruitment is the third-lowest-scoring theme in the benchmark. No company receives a full score on the theme of recruitment.