For You, for Us – Carrefour Commits Itself

Since 2001, Carrefour Colombia has adhered to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) program for the voluntary, gradual eradication of illicit plantations. In another project, in Bangladesh, the focus is on the workers of controlled products suppliers. Training helps them learn more about their labour and Human Rights.

The first best practice is about encouraging farmers to give up illicit cultivation: The idea is to assist those who have given up coca cultivation so that they can earn adequate incomes legally. This program consists of convincing Colombian farmers who cultivate illicit coca to change to products that are mainly consumed in their country, such as beans, cacao, palm hearts, coffee, honey, coconuts. To achieve this, and to ensure adequate income to farmers, it is important that a company can ensure the marketing of these substitution products. Thus, within the framework of the UN program, Carrefour has implemented practices already in place in other countries, such as guaranteeing a minimum price to enable farmers to live decently and committing to this in the long term.

The products are selected under the UNODC Alternative Development Products program and by the Colombian government’s Presidential Agency for Social Action. In some cases, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is also involved in the project. After checking farmers’ compliance with the “zero illicit” policy, the products are presented by the UNODC to Carrefour Commercial and Social Responsibility teams. Carrefour also offers technical support on quality, logistics, and packaging provided by its commercial team. To promote the products, Carrefour communicates in-store and places signs on the shelves next to the products, which state: “For you, for us, Carrefour commits itself. In buying this product, you also support the UN and national government program for substitution of illicit cultivation.”

Agroamazonia was created in mid-2001 by six associations of farmers that signed an agreement for the substitution of illicit cultivation, in line with the National Alternative Development Plan, which today is called Plan Colombia. The palm heart of Putumayo produced by Agroamazonia was the first product listed by Carrefour within the framework of the program in 2001. Agroamazonia includes 332 families and 660 hectares of palm. The project has thus enabled the eradication of more than 600 hectares of coca cultivation.

Carrefour also works with Ecolsierra, a network that brings together more than 700 families located in Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta (north of Colombia), who work to strengthen their productivity whilst implementing sustainable ecological agriculture methods. These families produce organic honey and coffee. Through application of these clean production methods, conservation, recuperation, and protection of natural resources can be achieved.

Today, within the program, Carrefour offers 45 products in its Colombian stores and works with 12 suppliers representing more than 3000 families from the most disadvantaged area in the country, which is also most affected by illicit cultivation. In November 2004, Carrefour Colombia received a special prize by the UNODC for its global contribution within the program for the voluntary, gradual eradication of illicit plantations. This UN civil society program rewards organizations and individuals who have contributed to the eradication of drugs and crime, corruption, and terrorism in the civil society. This was the first time the award was given to a company.

The Carrefour Group has been committed to the respect of Human Rights throughout its supply chain for more than 10 years. To this aim, the Group has been working with the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) since 1998 and drew up a Social Charter in 2000 signed by all its controlled products suppliers, who are audited on their compliance with it. Because training and awareness-raising of workers are key for improvement of working conditions in the factories, Carrefour and FIDH decided to launch a training project in Bangladesh with a local NGO, Karmojibi Nari (KN). The aim is to give the workers better knowledge about fundamental rights at work. The program was initiated as a pilot project in 2004 and then launched in 2006 as a three-year project with the objective of targeting all Carrefour's suppliers in Bangladesh.

This three-year “fundamental rights at work” training program is named “To Ensure Decent Workplace for Better Livelihood and Increase Productivity.”

Trainings sessions target three different groups, in the following order:

1. Top-level management: Through a two-hour discussion at the Carrefour office in Dhaka, Carrefour and KN explain the content of the program and discuss with factory owners the importance of training workers about their rights and responsibilities, as well as the link between social compliance and increased productivity.
2. Mid-level management training: This is a one-day on-site training with a main focus on gender discrimination. This training is to help the participants become more aware of what it means to be well-behaved, motivated, and heedful towards workers, how to find problem resolutions, and how to achieve productivity maximization. This training is key, as conflicts between workers and their direct supervisors are common, with the majority of supervisors being mainly men and about 75 percent of the workers being women.
3. Workers: The aim of this training is to inform workers of their rights, and to build their capacities in collective bargaining, organizational skills, and conflict resolution. This training consists of a one-day on-site training session. Each training group is composed of workers selected randomly by both the management and KN. Those workers receive five copies of the leaflets, which contain information about: the right to an appointment letter (contract); the service book; ID cards; wages; working hours; occupational health and safety; leaves for sickness, maternity, holiday, and festivals; duties and responsibilities. The leaflets are then distributed to other workers and they are assigned the task of disseminating what they have learned.
   

The management has increasingly realized the importance of having women as supervisors. KN noticed that workers show a genuine interest in knowing about their legal rights. After the training, workers become aware of the rights they have under the law and become more conscious of issues such as sexual harassment and complaint procedures. It was found that in some factories, workers asked for their rights and concrete changes happened in some workplaces following their demands (maternity leave with wages, overtime rates, canteen facilities, etc.). Without this program, no local NGO would ever have been allowed to access the factories and educate the workers within the workplace. The challenge now is to find ways to reach out to all workers.