Nestle Praised Over Slave Labour Admission

The food giant Nestle has won praise from workers' rights groups after vowing to end the use of slave labour in its Thai supply chain.

The Swiss company, best known for KitKats and Perrier Water, commissioned a study into the sourcing of its shrimps amid allegations workers in Thailand were "sold" to the industry from Cambodia or Myanmar and kept in appalling conditions.

The investigation, carried out by the labour charity Verite, found other migrants were lured by false promises, with forced labour and other human rights abuses "endemic", posing an "urgent challenge to any company sourcing seafood" in Thailand.

The report quoted one man as saying: "Sometimes, the net is too heavy and workers get pulled in to the water and just disappear."

In response, Nestle said it would clean up its supply chain.

Its measures also included a system for workers to report abuses anonymously, mandatory training and regular checks - with progress reports to be made public.

Executive vice president Magdi Batato said: "As we’ve said consistently, forced labour and human rights abuses have no place in our supply chain.

"Nestle believes that by working with suppliers we can make a positive difference to the sourcing of ingredients."

Nestle commissioned the report a year ago after lawsuits were launched against two of its brands in the US, including Fancy Feast cat food, which accused the company of importing goods from suppliers using slave labour.

Its response to the conclusions was welcomed by Verite while Steve Trent, executive director of the Environmental Justice Foundation, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation: "We need business to own up to the abuses in their supply chains and then work collectively to eradicate them.

"Businesses today have the ability to build the kind of transparency needed to effectively combat these human rights abuses and illegal fishing."

There is also pressure on the Thai government.

The EU threatened earlier this year to ban Thai seafood imports unless the country failed to adopt adequate measures against slave labour and illegal fishing.