Human Rights
Find out more about our approach to respecting human rights
Understanding the potential human rights impacts of our activities and business relationships
- Discrimination
- Forced Labour
- Freedom of Association
- Health and Safety
- Living Wages
- Water and Sanitation
- Working Hours
We recognise there is more to do to better understand human rights risk and measure impact to ensure our due diligence and action is really addressing the root cause of salient issues.
The human rights agenda and our business and extended supply chain is not static but continually evolving, so we will regularly review our human rights risk and impact and report progress on an annual basis.
Globally 1.1 billion people have insecure title to the land that they live on and farm. Land disputes have become one of the leading causes of local conflict around the world when people find out that their land has been allocated or sold without their consent. We see land rights as a growing salient issue. Whilst we have no evidence it is occurring in our extended supply chain we know it is an issue for certain commodity crops.
Water scarcity and sustainable water resource management are quickly rising to the top of the agenda for many businesses.
We respect the right to safe, clean water and sanitation, we strive to use water efficiently and to encourage responsible water stewardship in catchments where we and our extended supply chain operate.
Alongside the work we are doing within our supply chain, we are committed to ensuring that the principles of the Human Right to Water and Sanitation is integrated into our own business operations. We are clear that we will not take any action or perform any operations that undermine governmental obligations to its citizens through the Human Right to Water and where a country has not committed to the policy, we will act within the principle, as defined by the UN.
Our Global Sourcing Principles make it clear that within a work setting all businesses must ensure workers are provided with access to suitable water, hygiene and sanitation facilities. They must also ensure that their operations do not negatively affect access to safe water for the community.
Find out more about our approach to protecting natural resources.
Embedding human rights in our business practices
Human rights issues could arise in any part of our business. As a responsible business and employer upholding human rights is fundamental to who we are and what we stand for. We are currently focused on engaging all aspects of our business to strengthen the integration of human rights considerations into our policy and governance framework. This includes the rollout of employee engagement and training initiatives across our business areas and geographies.
For example, during 2019/2020 we created a phone app called “Everyone’s Business” empowering all buying team members to contribute to responsible sourcing. It provides guidance on responsible sourcing principles, country specific human rights information and advice on how to spot potential issues at suppliers. We have also integrated Modern Slavery training into our buyers Academy.
Our Group Secretary is responsible for providing a central source of guidance and advice on policy, procedure and ethics with support from a small team of legal and corporate governance specialists.
We summarise the results of our social compliance activities in our annual Plan A Report.
For M&S to be a successful and responsible business we depend on the support of stakeholders in the communities where we trade and where we and our supply chain operate. We are committed to engage with potentially and actually affected stakeholders on human rights, including in local communities where relevant. It’s hard for a company to know and show that it is respecting human rights if it is blind to how others perceive its actions and their effects.
It is critical that we identify and regularly interact with affected rights holders and expert stakeholders. These include our employees, customers, supply chain workers, contractors, artisanal and smallholder producers and local community and civil society groups. Affected individuals and groups may in turn be organised and represented by particular organisations or individuals (e.g. a community elder, trade union or local association) or have no formal structure. We employ a variety of techniques to identify these stakeholders which range from direct engagement and interaction, desktop research, third party assessments through to leveraging existing country knowledge and contacts. This includes identifying stakeholders based on their specific skills and expertise, such as civil society organisations, government agencies, and academic institutions. We interact with these stakeholders through ongoing dialogue on our identified salient human rights issues and consult with them in specific instances where possible human rights impacts have been highlighted through audit alerts, confidential reporting concerns or media publications.
We have a map of advocates for affected stakeholders we engage with by country and where we have run in depth programmes for local work/producer and community groups around factories and farms. We also map where our business and supply chain operations are likely to negatively impact on rights holders. For example, when building new stores we adopt the Considerate Constructors Scheme to ensure that we minimise any impacts (e.g. nuisance, health and safety, etc) of our work on others.
To be successful our approach to stakeholder identification and engagement needs to be a continual improvement process which fosters an open and candid discussion without fear of retribution. For instance, as our human rights programme evolves we plan to revisit how well our map of advocates represent our most vulnerable groups.
We group human rights stakeholders into three groups:
Directly affected stakeholders Includes employees, customers, supply chain workers and their representatives through trade unions and community leaders | We interact directly with our people in many ways, including via line managers, our Business Involvement Groups, our European Works Council, regular 'Talk Straight' staff surveys, and confidential hotline. We engage with customers via formal customer focus groups, customer services, our store staff and direct contact through our Chairman's Office. In our extended supply chain, all ethical assessments include direct workers interviews and we are expanding the use of mobile technology to survey workers directly. However, our experience is that the most meaningful understanding of salient issues comes from more in-depth interactions with affected rights holders. |
Advocates for affected stakeholders Representing informed proxies, such as NGOs and academics | We recognise that sometimes our ability to interact directly with stakeholders is limited, not least as rights holders may be wary of expressing their views directly with us. Intermediaries acting on the behalf of others is crucial to bridging this gap. For example, several NGO reports highlighting that ‘Sumangali’ (exploitation of young women in the mills and textile industry, a form of bonded labour) was still in practice led to us becoming a founding member of the ETI Tamil Nadu Multi-Stakeholder Working Group. This group aims to contribute to the elimination of exploitative practices in Southern India by promoting ethical recruitment of young women into the spinning sector, textile and garment industries. |
Human rights experts Comprising broad experts or experts on a particular salient issue | In any given year we meet with dozens of expert organisations including civil society, academia, and specialist consultants. Oxfam has been an indispensable stakeholder to M&S for a number of years. For example, in 2012, Oxfam shared with us the findings of their poverty footprint study in the horticultural sector in Kenya. This showed that despite a decade long focus on ethical trade, the communities where many workers lived were facing significant of challenges including sanitation, security and education. This ultimately led to us entering into a partnership with Emerging Leaders to implement their leadership training programme at scale within our supply base. |
Helping suppliers and partners improve their performance in respecting human rights
We’re committed to working with our suppliers to help them develop the necessary skills and competencies to meet our requirements by offering a range of training and development opportunities.
Our training programmes cover a range of topics and are delivered through a variety of formats including e-learning, presentations, workshops, global supplier conferences, practical assessments, webinars or case studies.
We have designed training programmes to educate suppliers about local laws, their rights at work, and our Global Sourcing Principles.
For example, in 2012 we developed and implemented a Fire Safety programme in our factories in Bangladesh with Worldwide Responsible Accreditation Production (WRAP). The programme is unique to M&S due to its fire champion module which takes workers right through from how fires start, the context and risks within the workplace, to how to effectively evacuate the workplace, the importance of safe practices and how they play a part in reducing the risk of fire in the workplace and their homes. Over 130,000 workers have received training through the M&S Fire Safety training programme and by December 2015, all of our garment factories had a worker fire champion in place.
We actively work with our suppliers on supporting workers in our supply chain on programmes including leadership skills, financial literacy and health.
For example, we decided to work with Emerging Leaders an NGO that provided leadership training to around 50,000 supply chain workers in Kenya, east Africa and South Africa, India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. The training takes participates on an incredible journey to a new mind-set and empowers them to take others on the same journey as leaders in their communities. Many tell us that the programme has led to improved productivity, better retention of high quality, motivated employees and less dependency on casual labour.
Another example is where we developed HealthWorks with Project Hope and the Reproductive Health Association of Cambodia (RHAC) to address simple root causes of absenteeism, and fatigue and increase health and nutritional awareness in 7 factories in Cambodia. We trained over 14,000 workers and upskilled the medical professionals on site to help improve employee health as well as workplace productivity.
Supplier Conferences
Second International Human Rights Conference, Istanbul
In September 2018, we delivered our 2nd International Human Rights conference in Turkey. The conference aimed to provide information and practical tools for suppliers on addressing the complexities of human rights within business, as well as sharing experiences and insights from the wider business community. The agenda included speakers from Coca-Cola, The British Embassy, United Work and Nestle, covering topics from Syrian Refugees to supply chain mapping. 172 people attended and for the majority (76%) it was the first conference they had attended specifically dedicated to human rights.
First International Human Rights Conference, Delhi
At the end of January 2018, we held our first ever international human rights conference in Delhi, India with over 250 attendees from our retail partners, M&S international retail and sourcing offices as well as logistics, IT, facilities, Food and Clothing & Home suppliers. The conference was also attended by many of our collaborators too including Coca-Cola, BT, Ethical Trading Initiative, Freedom Fund, Ethical Tea Partnership, Traidcraft, Fairtrade, Unseen and representatives from Indian, UK and Australian Governments.
The conference aimed to provide information and practical tools for suppliers on addressing the complexities of human rights within business, as well as sharing experiences and insights from the wider business community. We also launched our M&S Forced Labour Toolkit for International Suppliers and Partners at the conference.
Human Rights and Modern Slavery Conference
In February 2017, we brought together 150 suppliers from our UK Property, Logistics, IT, Retail and Clothing and Home supply base for our flagship Modern Slavery and Human Rights Conference, held in London. This event set out to help improve our suppliers understanding and management of modern slavery risk in their operations and wider supply chain. External speakers included Unseen, Stronger Together, the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority and the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre.
- Understand and work to meet our Global Sourcing Principles
- Comply with the Modern Slavery Act Reporting requirements if they are in scope
- Continue to engage with M&S on human rights and modern slavery
We continue to hold smaller supplier workshops throughout our supply chains to reinforce our policies and procedures and ensure they are maintaining processes to manage modern slavery risks.
Investigating and remedying breaches of our standards
Workers or their representatives are best placed to raise issues locally and potentially solve a dispute as it is occurring. Localised solutions tend to be most attuned to local culture, the concerns of those whose rights are impacted, and opportunities for sustainable solutions. External investigations of complaints by brand companies or multi-stakeholder initiatives are an important and necessary back-stop to these processes and should ideally be used after all local mechanisms have been tried first.
Often the issues that are raised are complex. This means it takes time to investigate and check facts. In some cases there is not a clear-cut right or wrong answer. In others, issues may not be able to be addressed by M&S alone and require wider engagement with governments, industry and other stakeholders.
We have both internal and external channels available for any party wishing to raise a concern, anonymously if required. We use a generic framework depending on the nature of the issue and local circumstances:
- Initial assessment of the complaint
- Internal investigation which may involve an independent third party
- Consultation and mediation with all parties
- If no agreement is forthcoming within a reasonable timeframe we reserve the right to decide on the outcome
Employees and direct suppliers | Employee grievances Employee grievances may include concerns around terms and conditions of employment, health and safety, work relations, bulling and harassment, new working practices, working environment, organisational changes and discrimination. Several of which may also be considered human rights breaches if significant enough. Staff independent of the grievance will investigate and seek to resolve the grievance and ensure all issues and concerns are also assessed on their possible human rights impacts Whistleblowing In most instances, we hope that individuals would feel they can raise concerns with their line manager. However, if they feel that this is not possible they can be raised via an independent and external facility. This facility is managed by Safecall and reporting can be done by phone (if you are an employee) or online in multiple languages via Safecall’s secure web reporting facility: https://www.safecall.co.uk/report. Individuals can also write to the M&S Group Secretary directly if they prefer. Once concerns have been reported either via the phone or online to Safecall, a unique case number is generated which allows for confidential dialogue to take place between the parties (e.g. should there be any further questions to ask). This includes situations where the party wishes to remain anonymous. It also enables feedback to be provided (e.g. progress status). All issues and concerns raised via this mechanism are reviewed by a senior manager in the M&S Investigation Team (part of the Corporate Governance team) who will either investigate themselves or pass it onto the relevant individual or team within the business to investigate. This includes situations which either does or could relate to human rights. All concerns will be taken seriously, fully investigated and appropriate action taken. All investigations conducted are also reported to our Audit Committee which is a committee of the M&S Board that deals with internal control and risk identification even where no wrongdoing has been found. |
Supply chain | All our suppliers are covered by our Global Sourcing Principles which require them to have their own grievance mechanisms in place. We also expect our suppliers to prohibit retaliation against workers or other stakeholders (including those that represent them) for raising concerns. To help our suppliers in this task we have a Workplace Communications programme - a two day training course and toolkit available for all our suppliers. It sets out how to develop or improve the provision of, and management interaction with, trade unions, worker committees, effective communication channels and trade union relationships. Where local and site based mechanisms fail, an individual or organisation can raise a complaint with us. They must be either directly affected by the issue or have a mandate to represent individuals or communities directly affected. During audits, our independent auditors leave calling cards with confidential phone numbers for workers to use to allow concerns to be raised after the audit has taken place. Concerns may also be reported via an independent and external facility. This facility is managed by Safecall and reporting can be done online in multiple languages via Safecall’s secure web reporting facility: https://www.safecall.co.uk/report.The complaint can be submitted in the individual’s or organisation’s own language. Once concerns have been reported online to Safecall, a unique case number is generated which allows for confidential dialogue to take place between the parties (e.g. should there be any further questions to ask). This includes situations where the party wishes to remain anonymous. It also enables feedback to be provided (e.g. progress status). All issues and concerns raised via this mechanism are reviewed by a senior manager in the M&S Investigation Team (part of the Corporate Governance team) who will pass it onto either the Food Group Senior Ethical Trade and Human Rights Manager or Head of Ethical Trading Clothing & Home to investigate. We endeavour to acknowledge receipt within 2 working days (5 working days if in a language other than English). Our goal will always be to assess and then investigate all legitimate complaints and promote their resolution in the quickest possible timeframe. The complaint will be considered to have been resolved at an initial stage if and when the parties agree on a plan for remedial action to address the issue. Complaints vary in scale, complexity and geographical origin so it is not possible to say how long it will take to reach a resolution. The issue may be resolved in a matter of weeks or it could take months or even years. We will, however, always strive to keep all parties regularly informed (in their local language) of the steps that are being taken and the results of the process. Find out more about our grievance procedure for Clothing, Home and Food supply chains. The OECD’s National Contact Points mechanism can be used in instances where individuals or communities feel they cannot raise a concern with us directly (see ‘Non-M&S grievance mechanisms’ below). |
External individuals and communities | Our grievance mechanism is accessible to all external individuals or communities. Concerns may be reported via an independent and external facility. This facility is managed by Safecall and reporting can be done online in multiple languages via Safecall’s secure web reporting facility: https://www.safecall.co.uk/report.The complaint can be submitted in the individual’s or organisation’s own language. We endeavour to acknowledge receipt within 2 working days (5 working days if in a language other than English). All issues and concerns raised via this mechanism are reviewed by a senior manager in the M&S Investigation Team (part of the Corporate Governance team) who will either investigate themselves or pass it onto the Corporate Head of Human Rights or other relevant individual or team within the business to investigate. This includes situations which either does or could relate to human rights. Our goal will always be to assess and then investigate all legitimate complaints and promote their resolution in the quickest possible timeframe. The complaint will be considered to have been resolved at an initial stage if and when the parties agree on a plan for remedial action to address the issue. Complaints vary in scale, complexity and geographical origin so it is not possible to say how long it will take to reach a resolution. The issue may be resolved in a matter of weeks or it could take months or even years. We will, however, always strive to keep all parties regularly informed (in their local language) of the steps that are being taken and the results of the process. Alternatively, the OECD’s National Contact Points mechanism can be used in instances where individuals or communities feel they cannot raise a concern with us directly (see ‘Non-M&S grievance mechanisms’ below). |
If a party is unhappy with the outcome they would be invited to raise the issue with the Corporate Head of Human Rights who will review the case with the independent Human Rights Stakeholder Advisory Group for a final decision. If the party is still dissatisfied with the outcome and the actions taken by M&S then they can refer the issue or complaint to the relevant National Contact Point.
Our approach to receipt of and response to grievances is evolving. And whilst we strive to have effective mechanisms in place, we recognise this is an area where have much to learn. We are, however, absolutely committed to promoting the channels through which individuals and communities who may be adversely impacted by our operations can raise complaints or concerns.
During 2016/17, we carried out a critical review of grievance mechanisms available both for individuals and communities, including our employees and supply chain and the extent to which issues are effectively raised within our business. This involved a critique against the effectiveness criteria for non-judicial grievance mechanisms set out in the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and developing a better understanding of our existing processes, identifying what reporting data is available and using a cross-business survey to assess awareness and adoption. We have identified some opportunities to improve our employees understanding of what channels are available within the business. We can also improve at an operational level, particularly in unifying the way we handle and follow up on grievances.
Find out more about our approach to responding to stakeholder concerns on human rights.
Collaborating with others to support and respect human rights
We are a founding member of the Food Network of Ethical Trade (FNET) which aims to improve human rights in global food supply chains through a common approach to managing ethical trade. We currently sit on the FNET Board as the retailer board member.
Key documents