Fairtrade utilises a variety of tools to prevent and mitigate¹ discrimination. The Fairtrade Standards are one of the tools and include many requirements regarding non-discrimination:

• Prohibition of discrimination. The Standards prohibit discrimination in recruitment, remuneration, promotion, termination, allocation of work and training, trade union affiliation, committee/cooperative membership, and other activities. This applies to workers employed indirectly via subcontractors as well. The Standards highlight to farmer organisations and plantations² the typical grounds for discrimination, including gender, ethnic origin, trade union participation and HIV/AIDS status, building on ILO Conventions³. 
• Suitable work for all. Potentially hazardous work, such as the application of pesticides, must not be required of children under the age of 18, pregnant or nursing women, persons with chronic, hepatic, renal or respiratory diseases, or persons with incapacitating mental conditions. Where a change of work is necessary, Fairtrade Standards require that the person is offered alternative work. 
• Risk assessment and follow up-measures. Farmer organisations and plantations are encouraged to assess and reduce the risk of discrimination. To support these activities, Fairtrade Standards also suggest risk assessment indicators and typical preventive measures. 
• Positive action. Fairtrade Standards encourage projects that improve the social and economic positions of disadvantaged groups with the goal of achieving equity in the workplace/cooperative membership and decision-making. These projects can be funded with Fairtrade Premium. For example, in the Dominican Republic’s banana sector, Fairtrade supports the access to healthcare and education for migrant workers and their families. 
• Migrant and seasonal workers. Plantations must ensure the same employment conditions and benefits to migrant, local, seasonal and permanent workers. Farmer organisations are also encouraged to achieve this.  
• Unionised workers. Workers’ rights to organise and negotiate collectively on wages and working conditions are protected in several ways in Fairtrade Standards. Please see the page on Labour Rights & Conditions for further information. 

Find the full set of discrimination-related requirements in the Fairtrade Standards at the bottom of this page. 

Even with strong requirements, standards and auditing alone cannot transform discriminatory beliefs, traditions or laws. That is why Fairtrade addresses the root causes of discrimination in several additional ways: 

• Awareness raising. Fairtrade engages in various awareness-raising activities with particular attention paid to local contexts and their salient issues. For example, in Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire, Fairtrade raises awareness about sharecroppers’ rights among cocoa producers. This is also reflected in the Fairtrade Cocoa Standard, through new requirements that become applicable in 2024 and 2025 (See page 16). In Latin America, the Fairtrade Producer Network CLAC has produced a video to raise awareness of discriminatory practices with examples of inclusion among farmer organisations and plantations. 
• Dialogue with certified organisations. Fairtrade has certified companies in places where discrimination against trade union members and anti-union sentiments are common. Over the years, Fairtrade has called on companies to respect trade union rights, including collective bargaining, and to cease discrimination against union leaders when necessary. 
• The Fairtrade Impact Map includes nine ongoing projects that address the rights of vulnerable groups, including women, children and youth. For example, the Fairtrade Coffee Rust Programme focused on building the organisational and community capabilities to increase the participation of under-represented community members. Almost 18 ,000 farmers in 45 smallholder organisations in Guatemala and Honduras were directly supported. In other projects in Ghana for example, the rights of children and vulnerable adults are supported through community-based monitoring and remediation systems. Read more here and here. 
• Tailored interventions to support marginalised groups. The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted global supply chains and impoverished many disadvantaged families. Fairtrade took several actions to support smallholder farmers and workers on the frontline of the pandemic, including more than €15 million in funding, which supported over 900 producer organisations in 57 countries. A 2022 study on Fairtrade certification and producer resilience in times of crises found that producers receiving Fairtrade COVID-19 support were on average 19 % less likely to report a high impact of COVID-19 on the lives of their members and workers.  
• Proven impact. According to a study on Fairtrade’s impact on rural development, a coffee cooperative in Peru was found to be remarkably conscious about vulnerable members within their communities and to provide them with some support measures. These measures included a fund to support producers who experience the death of a family member and to provide loans with no interest to elderly farmers to enable them to cope with potential health issues. They also had a scheme to incentivise the entry of members of indigenous communities to the cooperative by offering a membership fee at half the regular rate. 
• The Fairtrade Premium. Farmer organisations and plantations occasionally invest in projects that benefit the livelihoods or standing of disadvantaged groups and minorities. An overview of the use of Fairtrade Premium can be found here. If plantations distribute some Premium as cash, it must be distributed equitably amongst all workers, including temporary workers. 
• Facilitation of co-investment. Fairtrade offers opportunities for retailers, brands, manufacturers and traders to participate and invest in tackling discrimination in the communities they source from. The best practice section of the  Fairtrade Trader Standard encourages this. 

At the export, import and manufacturing stages, Fairtrade’s interventions to prevent and mitigate discrimination are currently less comprehensive than at the production stage. The Fairtrade Trader Standard requires companies to conduct a HREDD risk assessment, including the identification of vulnerable groups. Furthermore, companies are required to be aware of and comply with national labour laws and fundamental ILO Conventions, including those on discrimination and equal remuneration. This applies in Fairtrade certified supply chains whether or not the local country has ratified these ILO Conventions. Compliance with these requirements is checked in audits if there are any prior indication of non-compliance, such as allegations made by third parties. 

In addition, traders are required to pay Fairtrade Premium and Fairtrade Minimum Price, which support farmer organisations and plantations to invest in socio-economic development of the community and workers. 

 

^{1: Mitigating measures reduce the likelihood of an adverse impact (UNGP Interpretive Guide, p. 12)
2: On this page, we use "plantations" to refer to organisations using hired labour. 
3: ILO Convention 111 on Discrimination defines discrimination as “any distinction, exclusion or preference made on the basis of race, colour, gender, sex, religion, political opinion, national extraction or social origin, which has the effect of nullifying or impairing equality of opportunity or treatment in employment or occupation” (Article 1).}

 

^{4: For some further discussion on this, see this statement on Addressing Racial Inequality by Fairtrade International.
5: Remediation refers to the process of counteracting or fixing a human rights violation through measures that can include apologies, restitution, rehabilitation, financial or non-financial compensation, and punitive sanctions, as well as preventing the repetition or further cases of harm (UNGP Interpretive Guide, p. 12).
6: Fairtrade’s Child Labour and Forced Labour Guidelines.}