Another example of best practice is worker-driven social responsibility. It has three defining characteristics:
- Worker organisations must be the driving force in the creation, monitoring, and enforcement of programs designed to improve their wages and working conditions.
- Brands and retailers must sign legally binding agreements with worker organisations that facilitate the implementation of labor standards established by the program.
- Monitoring and enforcement mechanisms must be designed to provide workers an effective voice in the protection of their own rights.
Campaign partner Fair Food Program in the United States is a pioneer of worker-driven social responsibility. They manage a unique partnership between farmers, farmworkers, and food retailers that ensures decent wages and working conditions for the people who feed our families.
Worker-driven social responsibility shifts the system from an over-reliance on corporate social responsibility, ensuring that the workers’ voice is represented, that audits are not just a box-ticking exercise, instead providing measurable accountability.
While we recognise that the picture in Europe is slightly different than in the U.S., we see a certain inability of traditional trade unions to address the issues affecting migrant workers, and we would very much encourage the concept of worker-driven social responsibility in Europe.
