The MSC’s evolving approach to forced and child labour

A new chapter in social responsibility

With over 60 million people earning a living in the fishing and seafood sector, the industry’s labour practices have come under increasing scrutiny. According to the International Labour Organisation, at least 128,000 people are trapped in conditions of forced labour in the fishing industry.

Addressing these challenges is complex. Not only does it require political will, but also coordinated actions across government, industry and civil society to ensure systems that protect workers and effective enforcement. This raises a fundamental question: how does each actor translate their responsibility into action, and what role should the MSC play?

Our Purpose

For years, NGOs and businesses have called on the MSC to extend its assurance work beyond environmental sustainability to include social criteria. With over 20% of the world’s wild marine catch engaged in the MSC program, it is understandable why stakeholders see an opportunity for broader impact. However, the MSC’s founding mission—to end overfishing—remains unfinished.

Established over 25 years ago, the MSC was created to address the urgent environmental crisis of depleted fish stocks and ecosystem damage caused by overfishing. We do this by harnessing the power of the market through certification and ecolabelling, incentivising fisheries to improve by responding to retail and public demand for certified sustainable seafood.

While there has been growing demand for sustainably sourced foods and improved regulatory frameworks in different parts of the world over the past 25 years, the challenge is clear: over a third of fish stocks remain overfished. Recognising this, the MSC has chosen to stay true to its original mandate.

In line with our mission, our assessment tools, infrastructure and expertise are robust and well established for evaluating ecological health and determining environmental sustainability. However, they are not designed to address labour related issues with the same level of effectiveness.

The MSC’s program requirements

Despite our environmental focus, we have not relinquished our ambition to be a good ally with those seeking to make progress with the industry’s labour practices. Since 2014, we have introduced pre-entry requirements to our program, including prohibiting entities successfully prosecuted for forced or child labour from entering the program. In 2018, we went further, requiring fishery and supply chain companies to complete reporting templates on actions taken to combat forced and child labour, or, for some supply chain companies, to provide social audits by reputable suppliers.

However, as with any policy, it is essential to continually review whether these are working as intended.

Taking stock

In 2023, journalistic investigations raised doubts about the ability of social audits to reliably identify forced and child labour in supply chains. At the same time, approaches to monitoring and addressing these issues were evolving, with businesses increasingly adopting more robust due diligence processes.

In light of these developments, we convened an expert panel comprising individuals from NGOs, business, and with legal experience in human rights, to review our approach. After careful consideration of the panel’s recommendations, we have decided to remove third-party labour audits from our pre-entry requirements. While these audits were intended to exclude entities or mandate remedial action if forced or child labour was identified, there are legitimate concerns about their effectiveness for detecting forced or child labour.

The panel also considered the MSC’s role in supporting broader industry efforts to address forced and child labour. Their recommendation was clear: support businesses in meeting their due diligence obligations. Due diligence as set in the UN Guiding Principles and OECD guidelines, requires businesses to continuously monitor their supply chains, identify, assess, prevent, and mitigate adverse human rights impacts. It is an approach that goes beyond audits and recognises that addressing human rights abuses requires collaborative engagement, transparent disclosure and continuous action.

Collaboration for greater transparency

Our certification and ecolabelling program means we work with hundreds of fishery and commercial partners across the globe and through the supply chain. This network means that we are well placed to support efforts to promote greater transparency about policies and practices across the industry. We see significant value in pooling collective knowledge and expertise within the seafood sector—learning from best practices can raise standards and promote responsible behaviour.

As part of our contribution to transparency and due diligence, the MSC is exploring, with partners, the development of a third-party online portal for information disclosure to support due diligence. This initiative aims to address information gaps by creating a platform for transparent and comparable disclosure across the seafood supply chain.

Although still in its early stages, we intend to involve partners in this effort, recognising that collaboration across the industry is crucial to addressing the challenges of forced and child labour. We would like anyone interested in taking part to get in touch by emailing Chris Spring. By working together across different aspects of these complex issues, we can better share information and bridge knowledge gaps.