RESPECTING HUMAN RIGHTS: KEY STEPS IN MAKING PROGRESS
It’s why a respect for human rights and human dignity have always been core to our values; informing everything we do as a company, and how we work across our supply chain.
In 2020, we launched our Human Rights Policy Statement. The statement explains the issues Ferrero is working to address, as well as our approach to addressing them – and how we extend this approach throughout our supply chain. We followed our Statement with an initial Human Rights Report in 2022, detailing our existing work to address human rights issues, as well as what we’d be prioritising in the future.
We’re pleased to be releasing our Human Rights Progress Report, which shows how we’ve moved even further along.
Here are four key steps we’ve taken to get to where we are today:
1. Leading the way with child labour guidelines
To stay ahead of human rights challenges – particularly those affecting children – we need proactive action.
It’s why we partnered with Save the Children and the Center for Child Rights and Business to develop our own guidelines to help eliminate the root causes of child labour in the cocoa supply chains of Ivory Coast and Ghana.
Since 2022, we have been piloting these guidelines across our suppliers and cooperatives. At the moment, we’re gathering insights from these pilots, and they will be used to refine our approach as well as to broaden our efforts over the coming year.
We’re also pleased to say we’ve already received recognition as leaders in this area.
Last year, we ranked seventh among 1,802 companies in the Global Child Forum's latest Child Right’s benchmark report – an acknowledgement of the work we’ve done to respect children across our supply chains worldwide.
2. Going beyond existing standards
We believe real change means going above and beyond existing frameworks for enhanced ethical standards across our global operations.
For example, in 2022, we built on the existing SMETA (Sedex Member Ethical Trade Audit) industry framework for forced labour by launching SMETA+.
Our own bespoke social audit framework, SMETA+ has truly evolved our audit and compliance efforts. It uses the existing SMETA framework but adds additional layers of assessment – including more detailed questionnaires for suppliers – to address human rights concerns.
SMETA+ will be used across all of our manufacturing sites by the end of 2025.
3. Tackling unethical labour practices
One of the key barriers to achieving responsible labour practices is unethical hiring – especially when it comes to migrant workers. If not addressed, practices such as excessive overtime, employers holding onto workers’ passports, poor living conditions and restricted freedom to organise can lead to forced and bonded labour.
We wanted to remediate against these actions and establish responsible labour practices in our Malaysian palm oil supply chain.
That’s why we partnered with Earthworm Foundation in 2021. We started by running an initial assessment of working practices across all operations of one of our third party suppliers. By 2023, we were able to take the learnings from this assessment and successfully implement changes.
The approach has directly helped over 400 migrant workers and indirectly benefitted more than 4,000 workers. It’s been such a success that we expanded the programme in 2024 – including to another key palm oil supplier in Malaysia.
4. Prioritising the overall wellbeing of our own employees
Of course, the wellbeing of our own employees is equally important. We have established a comprehensive wellbeing framework structured around four key pillars: Health, Energy, Protection, and Community.
On a regional basis, we have dedicated Group Wellbeing Managers who oversee our wellbeing activities – each region is encouraged to run their own initiatives throughout the year, tailored to their local needs, but in line with the above pillars.
Globally, we also run four annual wellbeing awareness days, as well as a Wellbeing Month, and a Wellbeing & Safety month.
In 2024, our Wellbeing & Safety Month activity included a global virtual step challenge which over 4,000 employees took part in. It encouraged a sense of community as well as spreading awareness of active living benefits.
Looking ahead
We’re proud of the steps we’ve taken, but we know more progress can be made. For instance, by 2030, we aim to increase the representation of women in decision-making roles at Ferrero as part of our commitment to establish gender equity in the workplace.
For more information on the steps we’ve taken to ensure human rights are respected across our operations, and our future commitments, read our full Human Rights Progress Report.
Our Human Rights Policy Statement and Reporting:
