14/09/2016
Third Announcement


Decent Work for Blue Growth: Towards Social Responsibility in the Fish Business


Vigo, Spain, 4 October 2016


Background

Human rights and labour abuses including poor working conditions in the seafood sector have become widely publicized issues with reported cases of forced labour, human trafficking, child labour, but also poor occupational safety and health on fishing vessels and fish processing plants. Social sustainability and the call for decent work in the seafood sector are moving up the agenda of governments, retail and seafood industry, auditing and certification schemes, fish workers' unions, consumer groups and other civil society organizations. The Vigo Dialogue sessions in 2014 and 2015 discussed the promotion of decent work issues in fisheries and aquaculture, and in 2015 focused on benefits and incentives of decent work in the sector. Participants highlighted how promoting workers' welfare reduces the risk of bad reputation and increases workers' commitment to the company operations and business. Ensuring social responsibility and collaboration between actors along the whole value chain in a pre-competitive environment are essential as are the right to collective bargaining and protection of vulnerable migrant workers. Governments have a leading role to play in exercising coastal and flag state responsibilities along with the promotion and enforcement of international labour standards. The Vigo Dialogue in 2015 suggested that work be initiated towards a reference framework on decent work in the seafood sector.

Scope and programme

This first announcement and call for participation for the Vigo Dialogue in 2016 invites interested stakeholders to contribute to:

1. Sharing experiences and proposals for action for the promotion of decent work in the seafood business;
2. Information sharing about initiatives addressing labour issues and due diligence in seafood supply chains.

Promoting the decent work agenda in fisheries and aquaculture: Progress made and next actions

Seafood industry representatives, civil society organizations including fish workers' unions, government representatives and international organizations will share information on advances and experiences made in relation to the promotion of the decent work agenda, on upcoming initiatives, projects and events, as well as on proposals for action, including collaborative action and joint processes. Participants will be invited to highlight ongoing and future activities covering issues such as elimination of forced labour, discrimination, child labour, freedom of association and collective bargaining, occupational health and safety, training, working conditions, benefits, wages, employment opportunities also for youth, women and migrant workers.

Addressing labour issues and due diligence in seafood supply chains

There is growing interest in better understanding and managing labour issues in domestic, international and global seafood supply chains. Sustainability initiatives, including certification and labelling schemes, active in seafood value chains have already included social performance or accountability criteria, or are increasingly considering their use to inform seafood markets of fish produced in socially acceptable ways, with a particular focus on labour issues and conditions. Decent work issues in global supply chains – including seafood – have also been discussed during the 2016 ILO International Labour Conference. There are a number of international instruments such as the ILO Tripartite Declaration of principles concerning multinational enterprises and social policy, the UNHRC Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and the OECD/FAO Guidance for Responsible Agricultural Supply Chains, which address human rights, labour issues and due diligence policies and practices. These instruments could well be of interest to companies and fish workers' representatives active in seafood supply chains. Panelists and participants will share information about sustainability initiatives addressing labour issues in seafood supply chains and discuss related due diligence approaches for possible use in seafood supply chains. Participants may discuss opportunities/benefits as well as challenges/constraints of
labour-sensitive sustainability initiatives and due diligence guidelines and their application in seafood enterprises and supply chains. Participants will share conclusions and propose recommendations on adaptation, negotiation, uptake and implementation of labour-sensitive approaches to advance the decent work agenda in seafood supply chains and associated enterprises. This event is arranged by FAO and will take place during the Conxemar International Frozen Seafood Exhibition and Congress on Cephalopods, Vigo, 3-6 October 2016.

Provisional Agenda

Morning session: Promoting decent work in fisheries and aquaculture:  Progress made and next actions  (09:00 - 13:00)
		Panelists
	Welcoming remarks by FAO, ILO, CONXEMAR
Industry
Europeche		M van der Zwan
ICFA	International Coalition of Fisheries Associations	J Garat Pérez
NFI	National Fisheries Institute	J Connelly
OPAGAC	OPAGAC: Spanish Standard: Tuna from responsible fishing	J Morón
Pescanova		C.A. Berto
CGF	Consumer Goods Forum	D Bergeret
ANFACO -CECOPESCA		C Castro Neila
Civil society perspective including fishworkers’ unions
ITF	Towards social responsibility in the fish business: The promotion of ILO Convention 188 in the fisheries sector	L Baz
IUF	International Union of Food and Allied workers	K Buketov
ETF	European Transport Workers’ Federation	JM Trujillo
ICSF	International Collective in Support of Fishworkers	A Garcia
EJF	Environmental Justice Foundation	I Vidal
Governments
Senegal		D  Ndiaye
Thailand	Decent work in fisheries and aquaculture	Praulai Nootmorn
Viet Nam		Manh Cuong Doan  Duong Van Cuong
UK -  Seafish	Responsible Fishing Scheme	H Duggan
ILO	Promoting C188 Work in Fishing Convention and Forced Labour Protocol; Fishers first – Good practices to end labor exploitation at sea;  Oslo Conference on labour exploitation in fisheries	B Wagner; S de Bruijn
FAO	IMO/FAO Joint Working Group on IUU fishing, multi-agency inspections of labour conditions, Small- scale fisheries Guidelines, COFI	E D’Andrea; U Barg
INFOFISH		S Anthonysamy
Discussions		participants
	Lunch break (13:00 -  14:00)
Afternoon session: Addressing labour issues and due diligence in seafood supply chains (14:00 - 18:00)
		Presenters
FAO	Introduction and objectives of the session	U Barg
ILO	Decent Work in Global Supply Chains – focus of recent International Labour Conference	S de Bruijn
Shrimp Task Force	Shrimp sustainable supply chain task force – leading Thailand’s seafood supply chain towards a more sustainable pathway	D Guelker
SFP	Fighting against human rights abuses in fisheries:  SFP’s role and tools	P Ferreiro
ASC	Aquaculture Stewardship Council	I Pollard
MSC	Labour considerations in the Marine Stewardship Council Programme	O Oloruntuyi
Index Initiative	The Seafood Stewardship Index	G Haverkamp
GlobalGAP	Occupational health safety, social criteria, risk assessment on social practice	K Uhlig
Naturland	How Naturland standards promote fair labour conditions of its certified fisheries	S Bergleiter
GSSI	Global Sustainable Seafood Initiative: Social sustainability benchmarking efforts	N Wehner
Discussions
TUAC	Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights	K Drew
OECD/FAO	Guidance for Responsible Agricultural Supply Chains	U Barg
Discussions	Presentation of findings	participants
Wrap up	Conclusions and recommendations – the way ahead	FAO/ILO

Contacts
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