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British American Tobacco (BAT) and the International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers’ Associations (IUF)
Lead NCPUnited Kingdom
Supporting NCP(s)United States
DescriptionIUF claims that BAT is linked to abuses of migrant farm workers in the United States and is not meeting its obligations to help end these abuses.
Theme(s)General policies, Human rights
Date27 Apr 2016
Host country(ies)United States
SourceTrade Union
Industry sectorAgriculture, forestry and fishing
StatusConcluded
Summary

Read the initial statement issued by the UK NCP - 10 August 2016

Read the final statement issued by the UK NCP - 2 December 2019

On 27 April 2016, the International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers’ Associations (IUF) and the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC) submitted a specific instance alleging that British American Tobacco (BAT) was linked to abuses of migrant farmworkers in the United States and did not meet its obligations to help end these abuses.

On 10 August 2016, the NCP published its initial statement accepting the case for further examination. The NCP recognised that while BAT had met its obligations set out in the Guidelines, which formed the basis of the trade unions’ submission, issues remained for the company to address. A draft final statement was shared with the parties which resulted in a Steering Board review. Following the review, the NCP published its final statement on 2 December 2019, in which it made the following recommendations:

  • In the course of its engagement with the UK NCP, BAT provided two reports concerning working and living conditions for tobacco workers. One report was produced in 2015 under its own Social Responsibility in Tobacco Production (SRTP) programme. The other report was prepared for R.J. Reynolds Tobacco in 2016 under the U.S. Tobacco GAP Assessments programme, which is industry maintained. Both reports commented on the quality of living and working standards for workers in the tobacco industry. The UK NCP recommends that if BAT has not done so already, it should address the issues identified in these reports by establishing objective standards of living and working conditions for migrant workers.
  • Following the acquisition of RAI by BAT in 2017, the company is now a wholly owned subsidiary of BAT. The UK NCP therefore recommends that BAT ensure that RAI’s processes for managing the well-being of agricultural workers employed in its supply chain are fit for purpose. If it has not already done so, the UK NCP recommended that BAT apply the recommendations of the OECD Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Business Conduct.

The  NCP will issue a follow-up report to this final statement in April 2020.