Audit summary. British growers are at the top when it comes to world standards of apple and pear production. They are also one of the most audited in the world. BAPL continues to support those high standards while also ensuring that the audit burden is fairly applied. 

Here is a summary of BAPL audit-related activities in recent months: 

• September 2023 – BAPL publishes an article on the audit burden facing UK apple and pear growers. The article highlights the duplicative nature of many audits and the time it takes growers to prepare for and complete the requirements set by supermarkets and others.
• July 2024 – BAPL published its response to on-going discussions regarding changes to Sedex’s ethical audit (SMETA 7.0). The article outlines requirements that go beyond UK national law and are un-auditable. 

Since BAPL published its public response to SMETA above, we have also summarised the issues in a recent Fruit Grower article.

There are three key issues with the proposed SMETA 7.0 standard for UK apple and pear growers:

• Overtime. In the existing standard (and in the new proposed standard), the overtime clause requires growers to pay overtime at a rate of 125% of normal pay. Today, growers continue to receive non-conformances despite having reached collective agreements with their workforce to pay overtime at a lower rate. This is contra to UK national law which does not require overtime to be paid at a premium.
• Employer pays principle (EPP). In the new standard (from 10^th September 2024), A new EPP (employer pays principle) would require growers to pay all recruitment costs. Sedex has defined recruitment costs to include travel and visa costs. This is contra to the ILO (International Labour Organisation) guidance and the requirements of the Seasonal Worker Scheme (run by Home Office and Defra). Neither the ILO nor the government-run seasonal worker scheme currently require these costs to be paid by the employer. Everyone acknowledges that, if they are audited, no growers will be able to say they have paid these recruitment costs in 2024 because the seasonal worker scheme does not currently require it.
• Credible living wage. The new SMETA 7.0 standard requires growers to pay a “credible living wage”. This is despite there being no definition of what a credible living wage is. Furthermore, existing regulation (seasonal worker scheme) requires growers to pay a minimum of 32 hours per week at the national living wage as a minimum.

Read the Fruit Grower article (link to follow) for more on BAPL’s response to the proposed SMETA audit.

On behalf of growers, BAPL continues to challenge these changes. When changes do not follow either UK legislation or regulation, are un-auditable and unfair, we need to speak up. 

BAPL STATEMENT ON PROPOSED SMETA CHANGES – 10 July 2024

BAPL has called on SEDEX to pause its introduction of changes to its SMETA 7.0 standard. BAPL says that the proposed changes cannot be implemented or audited correctly, and risk food inflation of around 4-5p or more per pack of apples.

BAPL says that the new “employer pays principle” and credible living wage standards are aspirational and contrary to current Home Office and Defra interpretations of ILO guidance and our national law. This new standard has the potential to cause chaos and stress in fresh produce if introduced without appropriate consultation across the whole supply chain. In particular, there are serious implications for UK food price inflation and security.

SEDEX has interpreted ILO guidelines to mean that employers must pay for the recruitment related travel and visas of workers they employ on their farms. This would not only apply to workers coming from overseas via the seasonal worker scheme, but also any UK-based workers as well. This is contrary to usual UK employment practice and raises serious practical concerns. For example, seasonal workers often work on several different farms – as the picking seasons progress. In that situation, who would pay the upfront visa and travel costs? It would be unfair for that to fall solely to the first farm employer. If the upfront costs are split between different employers, how is it to be administered and managed? And ultimately how will these costs be funded by the supply chain?

BAPL is very concerned that the proposed SMETA standard 7.0 has not been properly thought through. Specifically, the changes are being pushed through without waiting for the Defra-funded impact assessment report on the employer pays principle, which is being conducted by the government’s seasonal worker scheme task force. Before that proper impact assessment has been completed there is no place for this new SMETA standard.

As things stand, some UK apple and pear growers are looking into alternative ethical audits that enable them to meet important retail requirements. They may also consider refusing to comply with this part of the SMETA audit until the Defra impact assessment report has been published.

In short, fact-based common sense needs to prevail. At the very least, this SMETA standard should not be implemented until Defra has completed its full assessment of the employer pays principle. Growers have estimated that paying the full travel and visa costs for seasonal workers would be equivalent to a 4-5p price increase in the cost of a pack of apples. Given the fact that apple and pear growers margins are already stretched to breaking point, these additional costs will have to be covered by retailers.

BAPL is asking all retailers to align and agree:

1. That UK fresh produce suppliers are not expected to respond to the employer pays and credible living wage sections of the proposed SMETA standard 7.0 audit.
2. That no action from producers is required if a “collaborative action required” is assigned by an auditor.

Read more about the audit burden facing UK apple and pear growers.