Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI) Base Code

There is no forced, bonded or involuntary prison labour. Workers are not required to lodge deposits or their identity papers with their employer and are free to leave their employer after reasonable notice.

• No retention of identity documents or deposits
• Worker freedom-of-movement evidence
• Notice-period compliance records

• Recruitment-fee debt bondage
• Withholding of identity documents

Workers, without distinction, have the right to join or form trade unions of their own choosing and to bargain collectively. The employer adopts an open attitude towards the activities of trade unions and their organisational activities. Workers' representatives are not discriminated against and have access to carry out their representative functions in the workplace. Where the right to freedom of association and collective bargaining is restricted under law, the employer facilitates, and does not hinder, the development of parallel means for independent and free association and bargaining.

• Union access and representative-function evidence
• Parallel-means mechanisms where the right is restricted
• Anti-discrimination protections for representatives

• Anti-union activity or discrimination against representatives
• No parallel means in restricted jurisdictions

A safe and hygienic working environment is provided, bearing in mind the prevailing knowledge of the industry and any specific hazards. Adequate steps are taken to prevent accidents and injury arising out of, associated with, or occurring in the course of work, by minimising, so far as is reasonably practicable, the causes of hazards inherent in the working environment. Workers receive regular and recorded health and safety training, and such training is repeated for new or reassigned workers. Access to clean toilet facilities and to potable water and, if appropriate, sanitary facilities for food storage are provided. Worker accommodation, where provided, is clean, safe, and meets the basic needs of the workers. The company observing the code assigns responsibility for health and safety to a senior management representative.

• OHS risk assessments and hazard registers
• Health-and-safety training records
• Senior management OHS accountability
• Worker-accommodation inspection records

• No documented OHS training
• Senior management not accountable for OHS

There shall be no new recruitment of child labour. Companies shall develop or participate in and contribute to policies and programmes which provide for the transition of any child found to be performing child labour to enable her or him to attend and remain in quality education until no longer a child. Children and young persons under 18 shall not be employed at night or in hazardous conditions. These policies and procedures shall conform to the provisions of the relevant ILO standards.

• Age-verification at recruitment
• Remediation programme for any child found in the workforce
• Restrictions on hazardous/night work for under-18s

• Age-verification gaps
• No transition-to-education remediation

Wages and benefits paid for a standard working week meet, at a minimum, national legal standards or industry benchmark standards, whichever is higher. In any event, wages should always be enough to meet basic needs and to provide some discretionary income. All workers shall be provided with written and understandable information about their employment conditions in respect to wages before they enter employment and about the particulars of their wages for the pay period concerned each time that they are paid. Deductions from wages as a disciplinary measure shall not be permitted, nor shall any deductions from wages not provided for by national law be permitted without the express and informed permission of the worker concerned. All disciplinary measures shall be recorded.

• Wage-benchmark analysis vs national and industry standards
• Pre-employment wage information records
• Pay-slip records
• Disciplinary-deduction records (where lawful and consented)

• Disciplinary wage deductions
• Unsigned wage deductions beyond legal requirement

Working hours must comply with national laws, collective agreements, and the provisions of 6.2 to 6.6 below, whichever affords the greater protection for workers. Sub-clauses are based on ILO standards. Working hours, excluding overtime, shall be defined by contract, and shall not exceed 48 hours per week. All overtime shall be voluntary. Overtime shall be used responsibly, taking into account all the following: the extent, frequency and hours worked by individual workers and the workforce as a whole. It shall not be used to replace regular employment. Overtime shall always be compensated at a premium rate, which is recommended to be not less than 125% of the regular rate of pay. The total hours worked in any 7 day period shall not exceed 60 hours, except where covered by the limited exceptions defined in the Base Code. Workers shall be provided with at least one day off in every 7 day p

• Hours records and weekly-limit monitoring
• Voluntary-overtime consent evidence
• Overtime premium pay records
• Day-off compliance records

• Routine overtime above the 48/60 hour limits
• Overtime not voluntary or not paid at a premium

There is no discrimination in hiring, compensation, access to training, promotion, termination or retirement based on race, caste, national origin, religion, age, disability, gender, marital status, sexual orientation, union membership or political affiliation.

• Non-discrimination policy and training
• Equal-pay and promotion records
• Complaint records demonstrating equitable handling

• Pay or promotion patterns showing discrimination
• No mechanism to report and investigate discrimination

To every extent possible work performed must be on the basis of recognised employment relationship established through national law and practice. Obligations to employees under labour or social security laws and regulations arising from the regular employment relationship shall not be avoided through the use of labour-only contracting, sub-contracting, or home-working arrangements, or through apprenticeship schemes where there is no real intent to impart skills or provide regular employment, nor shall any such obligations be avoided through the excessive use of fixed-term contracts of employment.

• Direct-employment policy and labour-on-hire/agency-worker controls
• Apprenticeship-programme integrity evidence
• Fixed-term-contract usage monitoring

• Use of sham-contracting / labour-only-contracting to avoid employment obligations
• Excessive use of fixed-term contracts

Physical abuse or discipline, the threat of physical abuse, sexual or other harassment and verbal abuse or other forms of intimidation shall be prohibited. The Base Code expressly covers gender-based violence and harassment.

• Prohibition policy covering physical, sexual, verbal abuse and gender-based violence
• Grievance records demonstrating effective handling
• Disciplinary actions for substantiated cases

• Allegations not handled or retaliated against
• No coverage of gender-based violence and harassment