Aldi UK operates with honesty and integrity wherever it does business around the world. We are committed to human rights and fair labour practices and expect all the people in our supply chains who grow, make and supply our products to be treated with fairness, respect and dignity. Although we do not own the companies or sites that we source from, we recognise that Aldi UK and our suppliers have a shared responsibility to ensure that working conditions in our supply chains meet with the high standards expected by our customers.
We therefore work with our suppliers to establish and maintain both social and environmental compliance standards within our supply chains. These are laid out in our Human Rights and Environmental Due Diligence Policy and Aldi's Business Partner Sustainability Standards (formerly Aldi's Social Standards in Production that are a part of our standard terms and conditions for all suppliers) and both are based on international standards including the following:
They define our commitment to human rights and fair labour practices and set out the minimum standards that we expect from our suppliers. These include:
Aldi will not tolerate inaction by suppliers on any human rights issues, including forced labour or child labour.
All suppliers are required to adhere to the Aldi Business Partner Sustainability Standards and apply them across their own supply chain, including to any approved sub-contractors that work for them. Suppliers and sub-contractors are expected to communicate the standards to workers, so they are aware of their rights. We check suppliers’ compliance with our standards through our Social Monitoring Programme (SMP).
Our Social Monitoring Programme aims to improve working conditions at sites that make Aldi products, particularly those in high-risk countries and product categories.
To demonstrate that they can meet our ethical standards and requirements, suppliers must also undergo an independent ethical audit or certification of their production sites. Those that we accept include:
• amfori Business Social Compliance Initiative (BSCI)
• Sedex Members Ethical Trade Audit (SMETA)
• Social Accountability International SA8000 standard (SA8000)
• Best Aquaculture Practice (BAP SA)
• Fair Wear Foundation
• International Council of Toy Industries Ethical Toy Program (ITCI/IETP)
• Responsible Business Alliance (RBA)
We expect our suppliers to take responsibility for monitoring and improving working conditions at all sites along their supply chains which are used to produce our products. We also expect them to adopt an approach to ethical trade that goes ‘beyond compliance’ and focuses on continuous improvement. However, we know from experience that third-party audits may not always provide a true picture of working conditions at a supplier site. In addition to third-party audits, we also carry out our own ethical audits and site visits through our Aldi Sustainability Assements.
The Aldi South Group has also adopted an annual Corporate Responsibility Supplier Evaluation (CRSE), an approach to supplier management and assessment that goes beyond conducting audits and focuses on our business partners’ social and environmental compliance management systems as well as their farms’ or production facilities’ CR performance.
You can find out more about this process and the Aldi South Group’s work on human rights in our supply chains on the Aldi South Group’s website.
