At Morrisons, as both a major retailer and manufacturer, we recognise the responsibility that we share with our suppliers to buy, produce and sell our products in an ethical manner. We are committed to ensuring that everyone who helps to make our products is treated with dignity and respect, in safe and fair workplaces.
We strongly believe that when human rights are respected and ethical standards are consistently delivered, this can improve worker wellbeing, productivity and quality, which benefits both our suppliers and our customers.
Our approach is informed by the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs), and we fully support the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and core International Labour Organisation standards.
Our Ethical Trading Policy and Ethical Trading Code remain at the heart of our activity to monitor, manage and mitigate human rights risk in our supply chain, setting out key rights for workers, including wages, working hours, safety, freedom of association and discrimination. Our Code is based on the Fundamental Conventions of the International Labour Organisation (ILO), national and international law and industry good practice. Compliance with this code is built into our standard terms and conditions for all suppliers.
We operate a risk-based, due diligence approach supported by the Supplier Ethical Data Exchange (Sedex), and where higher risk is identified, we require suppliers to demonstrate compliance with our Code through the provision of independent third party ethical audits.
Collaboration with external partners plays a key role in our programme as the issues we face are often complex and complicated. Morrisons has been actively engaged with the Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI) since 2015, and were confirmed as full members in 2018.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.
We are also members of the Food Network for Ethical Trade (FNET), which brings together major UK supermarkets and large food suppliers to improve human rights in global supply chains through a common approach to managing ethical trade. This initiative provides tools, support and guidance for our tier one suppliers to assess risk in their own global ingredient supply chains and take ownership for driving improvement. We are additionally sponsors of anti-slavery initiatives Stronger Together and Slave-Free Alliance, and members of the Spain Ethical Trading Forum and the Seafood Ethics Action Alliance.