The company is committed to:
1. Eradicating child labour and exploitation in its operations and supply chain, ensuring the protection and safety of children, and publicly stating its commitment to support, defend and safeguard their rights.
2. Eradicating forced or compulsory labour in the company and supply chain, ensuring that no recruitment fees or charges are made to workers, and guaranteeing that everybody is free to perform their work voluntarily without threats or reprisals.
3. Providing a safe and healthy workplace with effective measures to prevent occupational injuries or illnesses derived from the performance of the work by minimising or eliminating all workplace hazards.
4. Respecting its workers’ right of freedom of association to form or join any organisation they choose to represent and defend their interests vis-a-vis the company.
5. Promoting inclusion by preventing discrimination in hiring, remuneration, training, promotion and termination or retirement on the basis of race, place of birth, religion, disability, gender, sexual orientation, marital status, age or any other condition that could lead to exclusion.
6. Treating all workers with dignity and respect, and not tolerating corporal punishment, mental or physical coercion or verbal abuse, nor allowing rude or inhumane treatment, or threatening, abusive, exploitative or sexually coercive behaviour in the workplace.
7. Respecting the working hours, days of rest and holidays of workers, in accordance with the law, considering that all overtime must be voluntary.
8. Providing a living wage, social security and legal benefits to all its workers, and ensuring that their income is sufficient to meet their basic needs.
9. Ensuring compliance with these principles in its supply chain, including suppliers, contractors, employment agencies and recruitment firms, as part of its due diligence.
10. Setting up a Management System for the implementation, monitoring and correct application of these principles, ensuring full and sustained compliance with the Decalogue and continuously improving the company's social performance.
The company will give priority to the implementation of the principles of this Decalogue with the involvement of senior and middle management and employees, in order to comply with its precepts.
Terms of reference
Human Rights in the workplace
Decalogue
This Decalogue contains the fundamental principles for Social Compliance on Human Rights in the workplace, setting out guidelines for implementing and improving workers' rights within a comprehensive management system.
It is a tool created by EL CENTRO de Derechos de la Niñez y Empresas (Centre for the Rights of Children and Companies) to provide companies with a strategic roadmap for incorporating the necessary principles underpinning social responsibility into their management system by effectively analysing real and potential risks to foster optimal working conditions for their employees.
The Decalogue is aligned with the main national and international global sustainability guideline-setting standards. It encapsulates defined basic requirements such as:
- Social Accountability International, the creator of the SA8000 Standard on labour rights and occupational health and safety.
- Federal Labour Law, which governs the labour relations covered by Article 123 of the Mexican Constitution.
- Socially Responsible Company Distinction, awarded by the Mexican Centre for Philanthropy (Cemefi) and the Alliance for Corporate Social Responsibility (AliaRSE).
- ILO, the only “tripartite” UN agency that brings together governments, employers and workers from 187 member states to set labour standards, formulate policies and develop programmes promoting decent work for all women and men.
- USMCA, Trade Agreement between the United States, Mexico and Canada
- United Nations Global Compact and Agenda 2030, the leading global sustainability initiative to align world strategies with 10 universal principles for promoting Sustainable Development Goals.
- ISO26000, a non-certifiable international guideline developed using a multi-stakeholder approach, with the participation of more than 90 countries and 40 organisations involved in aspects of social responsibility.
- Global Reporting Initiative, GRI, standards for sustainability reporting based on a triple bottom line: economic, social and environmental.
The Decalogue contains the main guidelines on child labour and exploitation, forced labour, health and safety, freedom of association, inclusion and non-discrimination, humane treatment, social security, wages and working hours.
This Decalogue also promotes the incorporation of these principles into the supply chain of companies, as well as the creation of a management system for planning, implementing, monitoring and communicating them.
Terms and definitions
Worker:
Any person employed or hired by an organisation, including but not limited to directors, officers, managers, supervisors, staff and subcontracted workers.
Child labour:
Any work performed by a child under the age specified in the prior definition of a child, except as provided for in ILO Recommendation 146.
Child labour remediation:
Any support and actions necessary to ensure the safety, health, education and development of children who have been subjected to child labour, as defined above, and whose work has been terminated.
Forced or compulsory labour:
Any work or service that a person has not been offered to do voluntarily and is forced to do under threat of punishment or reprisal or is required to do in payment of a debt.
Health and safety:
This refers to action plans for identifying, locating and controlling risk situations in workplaces, as well as to establish measures and criteria to prevent them and eliminate possible causes of accidents at work.
Labour association or trade union:
An autonomous voluntary association of workers organised for the purpose of promoting and defending their rights and interests.
Collective bargaining agreement:
A contract that specifies the terms and conditions of work, negotiated between an organisation (i.e. the employer) or a group of employers and one or more workers' organisations.
Discrimination at work:
A situation in which a worker is professionally, financially or morally disadvantaged in relation to their colleagues for reasons not directly related to their work performance.
Worker:
Any person employed or hired by an organisation, including but not limited to directors, officers, managers, supervisors, staff and subcontracted workers.
Living Wage:
The remuneration received by a worker for a standard working week at a particular location, and which is sufficient to provide a decent standard of living for the worker and their family. A decent standard of living covers things like food, water, housing, education, health services, transport, clothing, and other essential needs including provision for unexpected events.
Stakeholder:
Individual or group interested in or affected by the social performance and/or activities of an organisation.
Supplier/contractor:
Any entity or individual in the supply chain that directly provides the organisation with goods or services integrated into, used in or for the production of the organisation's products or services.
Risk assessment:
A process to identify an organisation's health, safety and labour policies and practices and to prioritise the associated risks.
Non-conformity:
Non-compliance with a requirement.
Preventive action:
Action to eliminate the root causes of a potential non-conformity. Note: Preventive action is taken to prevent occurrence.
Corrective action:
Action to eliminate the root causes of a detected non-conformity. Note: Corrective action is taken to prevent recurrence.
Management System:
An operational roadmap enabling the organisation to achieve full and sustained compliance with the Decalogue while continuously improving. This is also known as Social Performance.
Management System implementation entails prioritising the engagement, incorporation and maintaining of the joint involvement of all stakeholders throughout the process of complying with all the principles.
Identifying and correcting identified risks take on a particularly important role in preventive planning to ensure continuous improvement.
Process for signing up to
the Decalogue
EL CENTRO de Derechos de la Niñez y Empresas calls upon all legally incorporated companies operating in Mexico and Latin America – and which are committed to improving quality of life for workers, offering decent working conditions and generating a culture in the supply chain of social compliance on labour-related human rights issues – to subscribe to the Decalogue.
There is no cost for companies to join the Decalogue and the steps are as follows:
1. Training company managers to raise awareness of the risks of social non-compliance, providing tools to improve their management systems focusing on Human Rights in the workplace.
2. Committing the company's senior management to adopt the Decalogue’s principles on Human Rights in the workplace.
3. Collecting signatures for the Decalogue from the company's area managers in the presence of senior management.
4. Holding talks with internal audiences and the supply chain to inform them about the commitments made in the Human Rights in the Workplace Decalogue.
5. Publicising the commitment made through the media, social networks or newsletters.
Commitments upon subscribing to
the Decalogue
Signatory companies will be able to:
Submit a brief annual report on the activities undertaken to encourage the adoption of the Decalogue’s principles.
Participate in an annual event with Decalogue signatory companies, where Best Practices on Human Rights in the Workplace will be shared. The first event will be held on 10th December 2024.
Benefits of subscribing to the Decalogue
- Companies subscribing to the Decalogue will join a select group of visionary organisations, distinguished for prioritising all-encompassing, continuous improvement-based sustainability.
- Permanent leadership based on principles of Human Rights in the workplace.
- The business strategy will be aligned with global standards required by international agreements, transnational business principles and social responsibility certifications.
- Their sphere of influence on the supply chain will grow by linking these principles as part of their shared responsibility and due diligence.
- They will obtain tools for performing timely diagnosis of the risks of social non-compliance.
- Participation in knowledge-sharing experiences and identification of best labour rights practices implemented by companies in Mexico and Latin America.
- Strengthened business reputation by committing to put people at the centre of your strategy.
For more information on EL CENTRO de Derechos de la Niñez y Empresas please contact: