How to use these GAIA principles

8. Which business activities are most pertinent in perpetuating the risks of GBVH? 

 Businesses primary activities of concern with respect to the risk of GBVH are: 

Employing workers, which includes recruiting and hiring, and substantially controlling working conditions (hours, pay, health and safety) and managing their labour (discipline, supervision, direction), including that of contract and indirect workers, to produce¹ goods (e.g. agricultural products) and services (e.g. security, cleaning, transportation).  

• Purchasing goods (e.g. placing orders) that are produced by workers including goods not for re-sale. 
• Purchasing services that are delivered by workers, and/or are done to workers delivered on behalf of businesses . These include services such as recruitment, cleaning, security, logistics and warehousing. 

9. Where should a business start with implementing the GAIA Principles?  

Every business in the supply chain has a responsibility to address GBVH. This responsibility should be shared and upheld at all levels, not pushed down to lower-tier partners. Therefore, the best place to start is with dialogue - with supply chain partners and workers and their representatives/trade unions to understand what GBVH means within own operations and in their supply chains, where the greatest risk lies, in terms of severity (including irremediability) and scale.  

It is also important to have joint understanding with business/supply chain partners of what the principles mean and how to collaborate in implementing them, to determine roles, responsibilities, and areas for further support. This understanding should be grounded in meaningful engagement with those who are affected by and are at risk of GBVH - workers, especially women - trade unions, individuals and organisations with expertise in GBVH. This process should inform action plans that are designed and implemented with workers, validated and monitored by workers and their representatives.  

See questions 14 and 15 

10. How can a business unlock resources internally to support implementation of the principles? 

Effectively preventing and responding to GBVH requires a collective effort, including fairly sharing costs and resources. Businesses can use these principles to coordinate their actions, combine resources and avoid duplication of efforts.  As an individual business looking to unlock resources to support implementation of the principles, it is important to engage senior leadership (see Principle 3) and develop the business case for addressing GBVH alongside other risks, recognising that addressing GBVH risks effectively may yield direct business benefits, such as increased productivity and fewer legal and reputational risks. 

11. Who should pay for the costs of programmes designed using the GAIA principles? 

Like other human rights initiatives, the costs of programmes (i.e. investments) should be absorbed into the cost of doing business and reflected in the prices of final goods and services produced, which is fairly shared as across the supply chain. Costs should not be disproportionately borne by lower-tier supply chain businesses. 

Businesses should consider supporting partners to make investments and creating economies of scale by collaborating with peers and supporting sector wide initiatives. For example. retailers can pool funds and resources and support tier one suppliers to strengthen their GRHRDD and/or fund training to a number of growers in a region. 

12. What should a business do when they have seasonal supply chains and where they have low levels of leverage? 

As with any potential adverse human rights impact, businesses can increase leverage through responsible purchasing practices if leverage is required with suppliers of goods and services, and pre-competitive collaboration with sector peers, which could be done via employer associations, multi-stakeholder initiatives and industry bodies. Additionally, where relevant, businesses are also advised to engage with buyers (retailers, packers and exporters/importers) who may lend support and influence. 

The Principles were developed to support greater alignment within and across commercial agricultural and fishery sectors.  We recommend that businesses use the fact that these were co-created by business, trade unions and NGOs to legitimise requests and to signal the direction of travel and change in industries, e.g. towards strong gender responsive human rights due diligence. 

Seasonality of product doesn’t necessarily need to equate to seasonality of employment. Business should take every effort to structure their operations in a way that enables permanent, stable and regular employment. Where seasonality is unavoidable, the seasonal nature of employment should not put workers at heighted risk of GBVH, this applies to the way workers are recruited as well as what is asked of them during the course of their contract. 

14. How should retailers and brands use the GAIA principles?  

The motivation for creating these principles came in part from a desire to create a unified framework that felt relevant and inclusive in its formulation and that embedded a commitment to jointly addressing issues and promoting rights. Responsibility to address GBVH in the workplace should be shared and upheld at all levels, not pushed down to lower-tier suppliers.  

There is an expectation that buying companies, and especially those selling the final product to consumers, do not simply pass the principles and responsibility for implementing them to their suppliers and expect resolution. They must actively lean into the process, assess the role and impact they have, and jointly define what is needed from them and what actions they should lead and support, to ensure sustainable and impactful change is realised.  

Suppliers should not feel they must deliver the principles in isolation and should expect support from their customers, in the spirit of shared responsibility. Just as the process of developing the principles themselves, supporting tools and resources, actions and implementation should remain tripartite (company-trade union-NGO collaboration).