Retailer partners with Gangmasters Licensing Authority to tackle issue
The Gangmasters Licensing Authority (GLA) and Sainsbury’s are working together to train staff to identify employee exploitation in the supply chain.
Describing the training partnership as “groundbreaking”, the GLA said the programme would help retail workers spot hidden exploitative practices at the farms, pack houses, processing plants and factories throughout the global supply-chain.
The first of their kind pilots, which started this week, have been designed to help the supermarket deliver bespoke training for its product suppliers.
GLA chief executive Paul Broadbent said: “We are delighted to have forged this industry leading agreement and to work alongside Sainsbury’s in this way.
“There is a real commitment and desire on both sides to identify any practice that subjects workers to exploitation.
“Such activity, by its very nature, is kept hidden by its perpetrators as far as possible and is difficult to detect but there are indicators to look out for and these are what we will be teaching Sainsbury’s product suppliers to spot.
“By raising awareness through training, Sainsbury’s is showing a determination to identify any issues of concern. I applaud them for this and will continue to work alongside them to tackle it.”
Judith Batchelar, director of Sainsbury’s Brand, said: “Modern slavery within global supply chains is a serious issue and it is a priority of ours to work with our suppliers to address it.”
This bespoke training arrangement builds on the GLA’s Supplier/Retail Protocol that was launched in October 2013 by Home Secretary Theresa May. It constitutes a commitment from major retailers and suppliers to share information and intelligence with the authority about suspicions and wrongdoings with confidence and is part of the GLA’s ongoing programme to raise awareness of worker exploitation within the specified regulated sector of agriculture, horticulture, shellfish gathering and all associated processing and packaging.