I’m usually writing about academic papers I read and like, so I give a go to rescue things I like (or not)… yet this is the first time that I do one that has my name on it!! To be honest not in my wildest dreams when I stared fishing in the mid 80s, would I ever thought to be in the place I’m now, doing the variety of work I do and be helping to write a academic paper on labour rights for fellow fishers and seafood workers!
Fishers are some of most resilient, positive and hardcore people you’ll ever meet. Always among brothers when with them even if I work for regulators now.
This paper is the brainchild of Katrina Nakamura, with Yoshitaka Ota and me as “uncles”. The origin of the paper was in the work we did (with Katrina) for the FAO Guidelines on social responsibility a couple of years ago.
After the FAO work, Katrina involved a group that included other well-known authors that dod not work with us on the guidelines, but have amazing knowledge on the topic… But something I learned on fishing boats is that they don’t work with too many captain and as there were positions and each had his battle horses that they weren’t ready to set aside a few left.
Then when it came to the editors at the magazine it got even more complicated… so the final result is a bit complex for my simple brain… yet I’m the least qualified of the authors in a topic where other than having been fisherman (and a seafood worker) I have limited experience.
And believe me… is so much easier (in my personal opinion) to work in the world of IUU fishing, MCS and data… than it is in the labour and human rights side of fisheries… so many sides and agendas that are hard to accommodate… for something that should be easier in my small and simple head:
The rights of a person working in fishing are the same to a person working in a bank, or driving a truck, working in parliament or milking cows.
The protection they deserve should be aligned to the risk of their job, which the way, in the case of a fisherman is most dangerous in the world (estimated 35000 a year…i.e. 1 every 15 minutes!)
Their rights and protections should not be dependent on the colour of the passports, as part of the aleatory event of their nationalities, and definitively not of whatever flag is in the vessel they are fishing or the country they are working.
Seafood buyers cannot externalise their due diligence of labour rights for fishers and seafood workers to a private label that may not be there in 20 years… while the government department that is responsible for that at the flag state will be there.
Of course is not so easy…
In any case, I rescue the flowing elements of the paper… but as always… read the original (is for free!)
Highlights
The paper carefully tracks the fundamental rights of all people in seafood workplaces and the business duty to uphold them.
Fundamental workplace protections were compiled from legal instruments applicable to fisheries and aquaculture worldwide.
Every person is legally-protected from forced labour throughout the work cycle universally and at sea as on land.
At minimum businesses must provide rights training, a clear agreement, responsive channel and safety in hazardous conditions
Abstract
Too many fishing crew have died aboard vessels known for fisheries crime. The purpose of this paper is to raise awareness of the ‘fundamental’ rights of all people working in the seafood sector and the business duty to prevent rights violations, as it is organized as minimum workplace procedures that are legally-established in international law, in customary use and effective. The authours searched for workplace guidance for respecting rights and then conducted research to identify the legal minimums that states have signed and ratified as essential, and are also in scope of the business duty that is set out in the United Nations Guiding Principles for Business and Human Rights, 2011. The result is a short list of workplace procedures which are:
intended to prevent rights violations particularly forced labour,
suited to diverse types of operations in different languages, customs or circumstances,
appropriate to all people in a seafood workplace whether they hold a contract or not, and that allow for
tracking labour conditions in ways which could be verified by the people working therein or their representatives.
To uphold fundamental rights in seafood workplaces, employers are to provide rights training for all new recruits in a language they understand, a safe, responsive channel for workplace grievances linking into the line of command, provisions for safe work in hazardous conditions, and among others, safe passage for individuals choosing to leave. At sea as on land, every individual has fundamental rights to legally-established assurances in seafood workplaces.
Conclusion
The main conclusion of this paper is that raising rights awareness among regulators, the industry and all people on the job is key to upholding rights in seafood workplaces and preventing forced labour. Pointedly, human rights due diligence is a preventative protocol for businesses and governments to fulfil together. The exercise holds great promise for tracking then preventing or mitigating risky conditions but can fall short where one party fails to recognize fundamental rights.
The protocol may not encompass all the relevant basic human rights protections required in the workplace, for example to bargain collectively. It can also fail if used to reduce business risks by identifying and then suppressing rights violations faced by people in work. A claim of intolerance to forced labour means little without corresponding mechanisms to hear labour disputes as they arise in seafood workplaces and to respond before they escalate. Exercised with respect for these limitations, human rights due diligence could become a powerful agent for change.
There is a learning curve to sensitize seafood operators, maritime officials, prosecutors and global grocery executives to labour risks and conditions—as they are defined in law but also as they occur locally, especially debt bondage and debt coercion—but the timeline should be short. Slavery has been illegal universally since 1926. A hundred years on, enforcement agencies like Interpol and the Financial Action Task Force (forced labour is a predicate crime to money laundering) are cracking down on labour exploitation in industrial production once again. Withholding wages, identification documents or even access to a first aid kit persist in seafood workplaces today in spite of labour law and occupational health and safety regulations (IOM, 2021).
Researchers also could serve the enormous and still unfinished task of abolition by asking, what does a safe workplace look like from the perspective of a fishing crew member, shrimp harvester or peeler?, then build a conceptual framework around that centre.