4. The Code of Conduct Requirements
The following chapters provide the vendor/manufacturer with additional information about the
content that the auditors will be checking in the audit at the production sites. The listed points
do not, however, lay any claim to completeness and are only used as an illustration.
The local labour, social and environmental laws are equally applicable at all times independently
of the points listed here.
4.1. Forced Labour
Forced labour, as defined in accordance with ILO Conventions 29 and 105, is any work or service that
is required from a person under threat of punishment or which the employee has not chosen freely.
Forced labour in conventional terms is fairly rare, but there are also more subtle forms of forced
labour that are frequently found:
- the retention of employees’ personal documents, salaries or salary components;
- demanding a deposit that is not returned upon termination of an employee;
- preventing an employee from leaving a production site;
- limiting the employee's freedom of movement, e.g. through security personnel;
- restricting the access to food and/or sanitary facilities.
The following points are checked in particular during an audit:
- The employee must be free to leave the factory premises and employee accommodations at all times.
- None of the employees may be kept or forced to work on the premises of the factory or in employee
accommodations to pay off debts or commission fees possibly paid to work agencies.
- Employees must be able to decide freely whether to make use of employee accommodations, food
and/or transport arrangements. Billing may only occur at net cost prices.
- Security services are not allowed to prevent the employee from leaving the factory premises or
the employee accommodations or exercise any form of mental or physical pressure on the employee.
- The employer is not allowed to retain original documents such as personal identification cards,
passports, birth certificates or deposits. The wages to which the employee is entitled may not be
denied and payment may not depend on whether the employee remains at the company.
- Working overtime must be a voluntary decision at all times. Salaries must be paid within the terms
set by law.
- The use of prison labour is not permitted in production for Tchibo.