Hormel Foods follows local and national laws in the United States and other regions in which we operate. We are committed to treating people with the utmost dignity and respect throughout our entire supply chain, and promoting and protecting the rights of all workers, including at-risk populations such as minors, women and minorities. Our human rights practices and expectations for our operations, partners and suppliers are part of our Code of Ethical Business Conduct, other policies, Supplier Code of Conduct and supplier contracts. Please see additional information below regarding our efforts to ensure our supply chain is free from slavery and human trafficking.
To ensure adherence to our Code of Ethical Business Conduct and Supplier Code of Conduct, we established a compliance program that upholds accountability through reporting, tracking and investigating possible violations. The Audit Committee of the company’s Board of Directors oversees the compliance program. In order to facilitate anonymous feedback and address concerns, we provide a hotline number and website that are operated by an independent, third-party organization. In 2020, there were no human rights incidents determined to be violations of our Code of Ethical Business Conduct or Supplier Code of Conduct.
Hormel Foods supports the Consumer Goods Forum resolution on human rights and its priority principles. We also value and respect the international principles, guidelines and goals aimed at promoting and protecting human rights, including the:
- International Bill of Human Rights;
- International Labour Organization Conventions;
- International Labour Organization’s Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work;
- Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises;
- U.N. Declaration of Human Rights;
- U.N. Global Compact’s 10 Principles;
- U.N. Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights; and the
- U.N. Sustainable Development Goals.
When Hormel Foods considers international investments, acquisitions and joint ventures, as part of the due diligence process we conduct research on human rights parameters to ensure compliance with all governing country or province laws regarding investment agreements, including:
- Verifying that the workforce is of appropriate and legal age.
- Determining whether the company is in compliance with the governing country or province laws regarding paying for overtime, as well as setting aside and disbursing legally required employee welfare funds for areas such as housing and education.
- Addressing overarching questions to determine whether the company adheres to all governing country or province laws and whether there are outstanding litigation or enforcement actions underway or expected.
- Documenting the company’s adherence to employee safety and right to work policies, ensuring they meet governing country or province laws.
We are committed to engaging in meaningful consultation with stakeholders regarding this important topic as we make updates to this statement, which is reviewed annually by the senior vice president of human resources. The company’s Code of Ethical Business Conduct is reviewed yearly by the Audit Committee of the company’s Board of Directors.
Information about employee safety, training, human rights training and diversity is reported annually in our global impact report.
Modern Slavery
Hormel Foods does not tolerate forced labor or human trafficking. Our efforts to ensure our supply chain is free from slavery and human trafficking include the following:
- Identifying and analyzing risks.
- Requiring compliance with all applicable laws and regulations, our purchase order terms and conditions and our Supplier of Code of Conduct.
- Performing supplier due diligence, including assessing the environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance and programs of our suppliers through a survey assessment process. Third-party audits may be conducted based on the results of assessments.
- Providing the ability for anyone to report a concern through our third-party compliance website or hotline (1-833-672-1232), which are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Reporters may choose to be anonymous.
- Implementing corrective actions for any supplier not in compliance with our standards or applicable laws. Should a supplier continue to fail to meet our standards, we will initiate our supplier discontinuation process.
- Providing training on our Supplier Code of Conduct, which includes the topics of slavery and human trafficking, for our team members and managers who have responsibility for supply chain management and procurement.
For additional information about these efforts, please see our California Transparency in Supply Chains Act disclosure.