East-West Seed Policy on Preventing Child Labor in Seed Production

East- West Seed Child Labor Policy

East-West Seed supports the United Nation’s Declaration on Human Rights and we share the principles contained in the International Labour Standards on Child Labour.

We do not tolerate child labor in any of our working places including contracted seed production fields. Therefore the use of child labor in East-West Seed premises and direct and contracted seed production areas shall be treated as a violation of this policy.

With the objective of eliminating child labor from the field, East-West Seed has introduced the following policy and procedures to apply to East-West Seed.

Definition of Child Labor

Child means a person who has not completed his fourteenth year of age. Therefore any child below this age shall not be hired for work.

Child labor as defined by the International Labor Organization is “work that deprives children of their childhood, their potential and their dignity, and that is harmful to physical and mental development.” To us, this includes volunteer work by a farmer’s own child and worker’s child. The scope of child labor according to East-West Seed entails that any type of child labor shall be prohibited from the company’s workplace and seed production fields.

Child Labor monitoring Process

East-West Seed introduced a set of processes for monitoring possible instances of child labor in Seed Production.

The process requires the collaboration among from responsible departments of Seed Production , Internal Quality , EWIN Child Care Program (CCP) committee , and company management.

It is a recurring process that applies to every crop season and for all contracts and fields in East-West Seed India.

Process Overview

Awareness Building

Awareness Building refers to various activities done by East-West Seed India before and throughout the crop season. It generally and mainly occurs before contract is being signed by Growers.

Awareness Building is focused on the child labor issue and field safety. It is conducted with Growers, Coordinators, EWS Seed production staffs, internal auditors and whoever is involved in seed production activities.

Awareness Building also extends to external parties such as local communities, schools, and authorities.

The activity includes training, campaigns, promotion, and communication to all internal and external stakeholders. The company uses various communication materials like posters, banners, videos, and direct campaigning in selected villages.

The Seed Production Manager and CCP are responsible for these activities, and their efforts should be included in the Performance Report.

Preventive Action

EWINDIA production contracts shall follow the EWS Policy for banning child labour in any type of work place including production fields.

Therefore the grower must acknowledge, accept and sign the contact with the condition that he/she;

Moreover, East-West Seed reserves the right to apply its rules and conditions of the contact with the grower, to prevent using child Labor in the seed production field.

Monitoring System – 3 phases

East-West Seed applies 3 steps of Field Monitoring system, conducted by internal and external parties.

The monitoring will be done throughout the crop season. Seed production staff will heighten its monitoring during the pollination and seed extraction period due to the labor intensity of these activities and higher risk of using child labor during these periods.

• 1st Step :

  Seed Production Staff must report the result of child labor observation throughout the crop season, especially during pollination period. The observation will be reported directly into the ABS system. The field observation shall be done on 100% of hybrid seed production fields.

• 2nd Step :

  The Quality Internal Auditor works on 30% of selected sample from hybrid seed production fields . The auditor must report the result of child labor monitoring during pollination and seed extraction period. Internal audit will be conducted unannounced.

• 3rd Step :

  The company will assign an External Audit company every alternate yearly. The audit company has the right to select any fields within the agreed number and shall conduct auditing independently.

Monitoring Schedule

Corrective Action

Corrective action shall be constructed based on report results and feedback from Internal and external stakeholders.

Internal Stakeholder : Seed Production Department. Quality Internal Auditors, CCP Committee, Company Management. Communication manager.

External Stakeholder : Growers, External Audit Company, other Seed Business industry. Local community

The activity should be led by CCP Lead and results should be applied towards;

• Improving communication and training program ( of building awareness )

• Identifying the reward objectives

• Screening of Growers (who does not follow EWS policy)

• Improving the campaign program

• Other related activity for promoting education, and communicating with growers on the issue of child labor

The corrective action must be in the Performance Report to East-West Seed Management.

Performance Report

The objective of the report is to communicate within the East-West Seed Group on EWINDIA’s compliance on child labor policy and its activities, as well as to sustain the company’s commitment to social compliance on child labor and field safety.

The report shall be sent every January undersigned by the CCP committee and addressed to the Board of Management and India General Manager.

The contents of Performance Report must include;

• Awareness

• Seed Production Child labor monitoring result

• Internal Audit and External audit with findings

• Corrective action suggested by CCP

• Agreed plan for next awareness session – by Seed Production manager

EWINDIA rule on Grower with Child Labor

EWS India must apply these rules to its contracted growers. The rule applies to each individual field:

• 1st time spot of Child Labor in field, Seed Production Staff shall give immediate warning message to Grower

• 2nd time - written warning message will be sent to the grower
  Any other field from the same grower will be in the watch list and needs to be audited by the internal auditor

• 3nd time spot of Child Labor from the same grower in the same contract will be in the blacklist and there will be no more production contract with the grower