At Seafood Expo Global in Barcelona, the Seafood Ethics Action Alliance is making it clear that it expects to see national governments make progress on the crucial Working in Fishing Convention (C188) international labour agreement.
The Seafood Ethics Action Alliance (SEA Alliance) – a consortium of 31 leading UK retailers and seafood businesses that have come together to ensure the prominence of human rights and labour standards as a consideration in developing truly sustainable seafood supply – is urgently telling labour ministers of key seafood sourcing countries to make progress in ratifying and implementing ILO C188.
Despite being in force since 2017, C188 has so far only been ratified by an extremely limited number of countries.
This critical international agreement aims to protect the rights of fishers and ensure that they are working safely. It sets out binding minimum requirements relating to occupational safety and health, rest periods, written work agreements, and social security protection, as well as providing for regulation of the recruitment process and investigation of complaints by fishers.
‘With only a few countries having ratified the convention, many workers in supply chains for SEA Alliance member companies are not yet covered by these essential protections,’ a SEA Alliance representative commented.
‘Spain, a major supplying country for international seafood markets and host of this year’s Seafood Expo Global, became the 21st country to ratify the Convention earlier in 2023. Now the SEA Alliance is calling on other countries to urgently follow suit, in order to provide a basis for effective regulation and enforcement of minimum labour standards in the global fishing sector.’
The SEA Alliance is attending the Global Seafood Expo in Barcelona, not only to advance advocacy efforts around the ratification of C188, but also to drive forward action amongst its membership and other companies.
‘The Alliance will be convening a meeting of retailers, seafood businesses, trade union representatives, and NGOs to launch the development of a set of powerful, co-designed commitments that will be refined and finalised over the next twelve months, alongside its existing work programme,’ SEA Alliance’s representative said, commenting that commitments will focus specifically on advancing human rights and labour standards in seafood supply chains.
Once finalised, the Alliance expects these to provide a clear anchor-point around which retailers and seafood businesses can coalesce in a joint mission to play an impactful role in safeguarding the rights of fishers and other workers in their seafood supply chains.
‘The commitments will provide a clear framework for ongoing action and progress reporting across the SEA Alliance membership, and beyond – with the Alliance hoping to engage a wide range of businesses internationally to strengthen this mission,’ SEA Alliance states.
