In light of this, FSC certificate holders must demonstrate conformity to the requirements, which cover the abolition of child labour, elimination of all forms of forced or compulsory labour, elimination of discrimination with respect to employment and occupation, upholding freedom of association, and the effective recognition of the right to collective bargaining.
While the protection of workers’ rights has always been part of FSC’s principles and mandatory for forest management certificate holders, the new FSC core labour requirements have also been included in the FSC chain of custody standard. The new requirements aim to ensure that the protection of workers’ rights is firmly tied to a company’s FSC certificate. This marks a first for the forest certification industry.
FSC developed the new requirements after members and stakeholders had a common understanding within the FSC system about the application of the principles and rights at work as defined in the International Labour Organization (ILO) Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at work (1998) and the eight ILO Core conventions.
Certificate holders are required to implement the FSC core labour requirements in their operations and must be able to demonstrate the same to external third-party auditors. These include:
- adopt and implement policy statement(s) that encompass the FSC core labour requirements; and
- implement these requirements in their operations
- describe this implementation with evidence through self-assessments, which are verified by auditors.
The benefits of the new standard include the fact that it eliminates sourcing risks related to labour and allows businesses to meet the requirements of customers in countries where workers and labour rights are a growing concern. Businesses can provide a demonstrable way to show how they respect workers’ rights, and how human rights are integrated into operations.
“The FSC core labour requirements represent a big step forward for workers in over 130 countries around the world, and for the companies they work for, who can now demonstrate their commitment to respecting the rights of their workers,” said FSC Director General, Kim Carstensen.
The FSC core labour requirements come into effect on 1 September 2021.
Implementation support
Several items supporting the implementation of the FSC core labour requirements are now available including a webinar download, national self-assessment templates, guidance document and more. Click here to access them.
UK self-assessment template
With the revision of FSC-STD-40-004 V3-1, certificate holders are required to complete a self-assessment of their conformance to FSC core labour requirements.
We have created a beta version of a UK national template to assist FSC certificate holders and organisations wishing to become certificate holders to demonstrate compliance with the requirements. We will continue to develop this over the transition period as input is received through feedback from certificate holders and certification bodies. We also expect to learn from the initial audits conducted by FSC accredited certification bodies and will update our template accordingly.
In our template, you will see we have provided suggested examples of evidence that can be used to demonstrate compliance. In order to keep our template concise and accessible we have chosen not to reference UK national legislation directly. The UK national legislation most relevant to the FSC Core Labour Requirements is listed in the FSC Controlled Wood National Risk Assessment and on the ILO page of ratified conventions (links to these are provided within the template).
Our template is an optional tool and certificate holders may create their own if preferred.