Human Rights

We work to ensure that everyone who helps to make our products is treated with dignity and respect, in safe and fair workplaces. We recognise the responsibility we share with our suppliers to improve labour standards in supply chains, and are committed to upholding the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights

We strongly believe that consistent ethical standards can improve worker wellbeing as well as leading to better productivity and quality. This also benefits our suppliers, their workers and our customers.

Workstream Objectives 

• Everyone who helps make our products is treated with dignity and respect, in safe and fair workplaces.
• All own-brand Tea, Coffee, Chocolate and Bananas are certified to Rainforest Alliance or Fairtrade by 2025.
• All primary own-brand suppliers upload Modern Slavery Act Statements to the UK Government Registry by 2025.
• Living wage gap for workers in our banana supply chains reduced by 50% by end of 2025 (vs 2022 baseline).

Our Expectations

Our Ethical Trading Policy and Ethical Trading Code guide our approach to monitoring, managing and mitigating human rights risk in our supply chain. All suppliers are required to comply with our Ethical Trading code, which is included in our Supplier Standard Terms & Conditions of Purchase. We also have additional policies to manage specific areas of risk such as child labour and the management of homeworkers.

So that everyone understands how they can support our human rights ambitions, we provide regular training for key functions such as Buying and Technical. We also make sure that our colleagues are aware of the risks that could affect them. Since 2020, we have delivered bespoke training on modern slavery and labour exploitation to over 15,000 workers in our Manufacturing and Logistics divisions.

Managing Risk

We are members of Sedex (Supplier Ethical Data Exchange), a not-for-profit membership organisation that supports responsible and ethical business practice in global supply chains. All suppliers of our own-brand products, and their manufacturing sites, are required to join Sedex and use it to share data with us. Higher-risk suppliers must also regularly carry out an independent, third-party ethical audit.

As part of our commitment to transparency, we also publish details of all first-tier factories that make our Nutmeg clothing range and all our own-brand food and non-food products.

Collaboration

Because the issues we face are often complex, collaboration plays a key role in our work around human rights. 

Morrisons is an active member of several collaborative initiatives that support companies to establish good practice, such as the Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI) and the Food Network for Ethical Trade (FNET). Membership enables us to join forces with other businesses, trade unions, and civil society organisations to support wider advocacy and drive positive change in our supply chains. 

Training, awareness-building and engagement are key elements of our approach to managing human rights risk in our global supply chains.  All our suppliers can access free training through our sponsorship of initiatives such as Stronger Together and the Responsible Recruitment Toolkit. Over 1,800 supplier delegates have now attended these sessions, which help them drive improvements in their own businesses.

Our Contribution