Labour rights in Unilever’s supply chain: from compliance to good practice. An Oxfam study of labour issues in Unilever’s Viet Nam operations and supply chain

This Oxfam report, based on a case study on Vietnam, assesses the labour standards in Unilever’s operations and wider supply chain and compares the findings with the company's high-level policy commitments. The company co-operated fully with the study, providing access to its staff, operations, data and suppliers. The study focused on issues which are important to workers but difficult for companies to measure and manage: freedom of association and collective bargaining; a living wage; and working hours and contract labour. The report finds that Unilever has made a commitment to social responsibility by adopting the United Nations Guiding Principles (UNGP), but human and labour rights are absent from the Unilever Sustainable Living Plan. The report makes a number of recommendations for Unilever ranging from adjusting policies and business model to deliver better quality jobs for workers to integrating measurable targets for labour rights and job quality to a public reporting process.