50 signatures reached
To: Paul Bulcke - Nestle CEO
Nestle - pay a living wage in your supply chain
I want Nestle, who made a profit of £9.8 billion in 2013, to pay a living wage to all those that work in its supply chain.
Nestle has committed to paying a living wage to its employees in the UK, has one Fairtrade chocolate product and some certified by UTZ.
But this just looks like clever PR. With bumper profits it should be paying a living wage to everyone in its supply chain and embedded this into its supply chain policy.
A living wage would "afford a decent standard of living for the worker and their family. Elements of a decent standard of living include food, water, housing, education, health care,transport, clothing, and other essential needs, including provision for unexpected events" 2
The Living Wage is defined per country and/or per region, and this can be found in the List of Living Wage Benchmarks.
It would be great if the company made this commitment as part of Living Wage Week which starts on November 2nd 2014.
Why is this important?
Paying a living wage to those supplying the company will make a massive difference to the lives of workers all over the world.
For example on average, cocoa farmers earn less than $2 per day, an income below the poverty line. As a result, they often resort to the use of child labour to keep their prices competitive.3
By committing to paying a living wage not only will they drive up the pay of workers it will also mean that suppliers will not have to resort to exploiting child labour.
In 2012 Nestlé UK used cocoa farmer Kouame Fasseri, from the Cote d’Ivoire to promote its Fairtrade Kit Kat. He spoke about the difference the Fairtrade premiums had made to his community going towards a new health centre, health insurance and a new school.4
Two years on it is time that Nestle started to pay a living wage to all its workers.
1 http://www.nestle.com/asset-library/documents/library/documents/suppliers/supplier-code-english.pdf
2 http://www.utzcertified-trainingcenter.com/home/images/stories/library_files/EN_UTZ_Core_Code_for_Individual_Certification_2014.pdf
3 http://www.foodispower.org/slavery-chocolate/
4 http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/Bvfr7qXS4gmWz3ptXVymT7/does-the-fairtrade-label-on-your-chocolate-bar-mean-100-fairtrade-cocoa-beans
How it will be delivered
I'll run an online survey soon asking how people want me to deliver the survey.
