The Fresca Group was represented by Sophie Hiorns, Corporate Social Responsibility Coordinator for Primafruit and Shayne Tyler, Group Compliance Director for Fresca who gave a presentation on How the new normality can help us build a fairer supply chain to the attendees of the Ethical Trade Forum Meeting (July 14 and 16).
The content of the presentation began by remarking on how the importance of the Health, Safety and Welfare of workers in the company is an important objective for Management, as good management of these three pillars guarantees good business practice.
In the Fresca Group, this change in normality has led them to consider identifying what is now essential and what is not, introducing various measures such as working from home, implementing new safety and cleaning measures and even offering guidance to other organisations.
This pandemic has also modified audits in the workplace, partially replacing them with remote audits through video conferences, sending previous documentation to prepare it, virtual visits to the facilities, etc.
And unfortunately, sometimes it is precisely the lack of real presence of the auditors on site that favours in some cases the use of bad practices and even the exploitation of workers.
These bad practices should be avoided and a fair supply chain should be sought, for the benefit and reputation of the company. In addition, extra costs of audits that may occur to correct them will be avoided.
To this end, it is necessary to work to increase the communication of the problems that are detected, as well as to communicate the good practices carried out.
We must prevent, prepare and protect to move forward.