Promoting equal treatment of workers

ETI members have developed a groundbreaking training programme aimed at tackling discrimination in the workplace and promoting equal treatment of workers, while building suppliers' capacity to provide decent working conditions.

Why are we doing this?

Our members' experience shows that worksite supervisors — the people who manage workers on a day-to-day basis — play a major part in determining whether workers are treated fairly and equally. They have found that supervisors are often inadequately trained to manage people, and lack the skills to handle sensitive issues like harassment. Most do not see themselves as managers.

Building local capacity to address workers' issues

Most companies use workplace audits to assess how workers are treated and to tackle problems around discrimination and harassment. But audits often fail to pick up these kinds of problems and, even where they do, they do not help solve them.

ETI members have been investigating how they can help build the capacity of their suppliers to manage their workers fairly and effectively, and so potentially drive major improvements in several areas of the ETI Base Code.

The resulting supervisor training programme has been developed in consultation with ETI member companies, trade unions and non-governmental organisations (NGOs), with expert input from specialists in the field.

Creating a culture of respect at work

The aim of the training programme is to create a workplace where people want to work. The specific objectives of the programme are to ensure that:

• supervisors are aware of their rights and responsibilities and the rights and responsibilities of the people they supervise;
• supervisors are able to encourage a culture of respect in the workplace, as well as prevent and handle discrimination and sexual harassment;
• supervisors are aware of their role in the day-to-day implementation of workers' rights in practice; and
• managers are aware of the challenges faced by supervisors in ensuring equal treatment of workers and work with supervisors to implement change.

As well as a two-day course for supervisors, the programme also includes a half-day course for managers aimed at providing them with the skills to help supervisors handle issues such as discrimination and sexual harassment, and gaining managers' commitment to work with supervisors to address these issues.

The training is highly interactive, using participatory techniques and covering areas that are rarely covered in supervisors' training.

Positive changes

The course for supervisors was piloted on four farms in Kenya in October 2008. Supervisors taking part in pilot training welcomed it for its high quality and innovation, and post-course visits to the participating workplaces revealed that some positive changes have already been made, including:

• new policies and procedures;
• improved implementation of existing policies and procedures;
• communication of policies and procedures to workers; and
• improved communication between workers, supervisors and managers.

Both the supervisor and manager courses were also run on a vegetable farm in the UK in 2009. The success of the courses in engaging supervisors and managers from a variety of European countries and cultures, and helping to promote equal treatment of workers within a UK worksite, has demonstrated the flexibility of the programme and the suitability of the materials for sites in different countries and contexts.

The training materials have been revised and further developed on the basis of the pilot exercises, and are now being rolled out more widely. We are working with the Ethical Tea Partnership to build trainer capacity and run the the programme on tea estates in Kenya and India from March 2010, and are developing plans with other partners for wider roll out later in the year.

Click to download a brochure about the supervisor training programme.