It is our vision to become the world’s berry company,
enriching the lives of everyone we touch.
All berries are hand-harvested. Most likely before you pick up your clamshell at the supermarket, the only other person that has touched those berries is a harvester. They play a vital role in delivering fresh, quality, and delicious berries to you and your family. That’s why treating the workforce with dignity isn’t just the right thing to do, it’s crucial to the future of our business. To continue delivering on our mission of providing the finest berries, we must create jobs people want and treat them with respect to attract and retain a thriving workforce.
How we plan to do this? By working and living by the values closest to our hearts. For us, this means caring for our people, our communities and the environment. Having a genuine passion for what we do, respect and humility for all of our partners, and being trustworthy and transparent in our day to day operations.
Our worker welfare vision is captured in our
Driscoll’s Labor Standards.
Standards that are applicable to all our independent growers.
Although a majority of the workforce is employed by independent growers, we have a responsibility as a trusted brand to ensure harvesters are treated with respect and working within the enterprise is a source of pride. Collaboration with growers is key to maintaining our standards and striving for continuous improvement. Given that approximately 75% of produce is hand-harvested, we also strive to raise the standards across the industry to address systemic agricultural issues around the world.
Our labor program is comprised of four main activities:
Our independent growers were always expected to comply with all laws and regulations. However, we realized there was a need for additional standards where laws do not exist, are not consistently enforced, or provide lower protection to workers. Our first step was to review existing standards from governmental and non-governmental organizations like the International Labor Organization (ILO) Conventions, Global Social Compliance Program (GSCP) Standards,Business Social Compliance Initiative (BSCI) Standards. After applying these existing frameworks to the realities unique to our crops and growing regions, we developed a set of standards that ensure farm workers are treated with respect, their workplaces are clean and healthy, and employment within the Driscoll’s system provides a sufficient income to live with dignity.
Driscoll’s only works with suppliers that not only adhere to applicable local laws but show a commitment to our labor standards. There is zero tolerance for engaging in the following practices:
• Child labor
• Forced labor
• Human trafficking
• Coercion, abuse and harassment
• Health and safety conditions posing immediate risk to life and limb
All identified issues in conflict with the above standards are unacceptable and must be corrected immediately or will result in termination of the relationship with Driscoll’s
Driscoll’s promises and expects an environment of transparency and information exchange between us and our growers with regards to labor policies, practices and conditions. To ensure the standards are being adhered to, growers are equipped with trainings and best practices, are subject to 3rd party audits, and are supported to continuously improve the workplace environment.
We recognize issues may arise and incremental change may be necessary to remain compliant. If any issues are identified through the audit process, growers are expected to work with Driscoll’s to create improvement plans. The improvement plan identifies specific changes that will be made to bring employment practices on the ranch into compliance with our standards.
Key elements of our labor program include designing processes and educating growers on how to implement them. Once these processes are complete and handed over to growers and district managers, they are completely embedded within normal business activities to ensure lasting and sustainable change within our enterprise.
100% of our growers have received in-person training, on our labor standards which is key to ensuring acceptance and adoption. Moreover, growers and their key staff receive deep dives in specific labor topics, based on local needs and conditions. Farm workers also receive trainings in topics such as health and safety.
Driscoll’s can only do so much alone. To address widespread and complex issues in agriculture, we must partner with growers, other companies, governments, NGOs, and other stakeholders to find solutions and raise standards across the industry.
We engage in the ethical trading forum in Spain and the Strawberry Working Group in Morocco to raise standards across the industry and address systemic issues such as insufficient social security registrations. The good results in Morocco were recognized with a SEDEX award in 2019.
In Morocco, we collaborate with the Social Security office - CNSS, to organize visits to all farms in order to explain to workers what are their social security rights and benefits, and how to access them.
In Portugal, we joined forces with growers, local schools and NGOs to facilitate the learning of Portuguese by migrant farm workers.