Questions & Answers

WIETA - A first for ethical trade in the wine industry and beyond

WIETA is a voluntary, not-for-profit organisation which was started in 2002 and aims to promote decent and fair standards of employment for all. Its members include a significant number of South African wine producers, retailers, trade unions, non-governmental organisations and the government, and more recently, cut flower and deciduous fruit growers and packsheds. The association is winning international recognition as a world leader in ethical auditing, having already accredited 12 producers.

How has WIETA grown since its creation in 2002?

WIETA has made momentous strides in the last two years. It was only ten years ago that labour legislation was even introduced on farms - now WIETA is ensuring that this legislation is complied with.

The organisation now has 95  members and has sixteen highly skilled auditors as independent contractors, along with three full-time members of staff. Tesco, Co-op, Marks and Spencer and ASDA have signed up as members and all UK retailers have shown their support for the scheme. One of the association’s greatest achievements has been its ability to bring together so many different stakeholders from the wine, cut flowers, and fruit trades, retailers and NGOs to attend regular meetings and work together in a common goal - the first time that such an association has managed to bring together so many different parties in this way.

What does WIETA actually audit and how does it work?

WIETA has drawn up a code for ethical trading based on Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI) standards which covers areas such as health and safety, discrimination, working hours, living wages, freedom of association, training and housing provision. Members are made aware of the code and carry out their own self-assessment to check their compliance with the guidelines. They then book an audit by WIETA to check that standards are being upheld. WIETA auditors, experts in fields as diverse as labour law, health and safety and rural social research, spend one to two days in each workplace, consulting and feeding back to both the workers and management. Corrective action plans are then put in place, and WIETA monitors their implementation until all standards have been met.
 

In the audits that have been carried out so far, which are the most common reasons for non-compliance with the regulations?

Many workplaces have been found not to comply with Health and Safety regulations. In this respect WIETA has served to educate the member companies and limit the risks that workers are exposed to.

As in most agricultural regions, many workers in South African vineyards, flower and fruit orchards  are temporary, and labour brokers who contract this seasonal labour force have been found to commit the most rights infringements by not always paying a decent wage or formally contracting their workers. WIETA is working to ensure that labour rights are respected throughout the supply chain.

What can global retailers do to support WIETA and why is it in their interest?

Buyers need to keep track of their supplier’s progress, promoting compliance with the code. It is in the interest of all retailers to ensure that their suppliers are meeting ethical standards and by creating one standardised body to carry out these audits within the South African agricultural sector WIETA offers an easy way to monitor compliance with these standards.  In addition, WIETA is now a listed auditing body on the SEDEX system, so if our members wish, our audits and action plans can be uploaded into the confidential SEDEX global virtual network linking buyers and producers.

Are the audits linked to wine quality?

It is not easy to prove that there is a direct relationship between WIETA certification and the quality of the agricultural products but it is hoped that through empowering workers they will have a better understanding of how improving the quality of output benefits them directly and productivity should improve.

Will products from member companies accredited by WIETA carry a logo or label to show this?

At present this is not feasible as most of the WIETA audits to date have involved producers that source primary inputs /crops from a variety of different suppliers. The audit process involves the site rather than the product and it is difficult to guarantee that, for example,  every grape that has gone into the wine has come from a socially ethical worksite. However, in the future, we plan to monitor compliance down the supply chain, and this is something which we will need to look at in the future, where both the production site and all its suppliers comply with the provisions of the WIETA code. It is also important that as of 2006 WIETA will sign a memorandum of agreement with Fair Trade Labelling Organisation (Certification Division), signalling a closer co-operation which we hope will lead to joint recognition of accreditation/certification, so that producers and growers can get both WIETA accreditation and FLO certification (the latter carrying a label on the product) through parallel processes at lower total auditing costs.  However, this discussion is in the early stages as yet. This website will keep all our members updated on this co-operation.

Does WIETA really make a difference to the lives of workers?

WIETA’s greatest achievement has been to make owners and producers aware of conditions that can be detrimental to the health, safety and labour rights of their workers. For example, many winery owners did not know that using certain filtration media can cause silicosis and were inadvertently putting their cellar workers at risk. Now WIETA has educated them on the problem, preventative measures can be taken. In other cases, housing for temporary cellar workers has also been improved and since the WIETA inspections, members have taken steps to rectify problems experienced by seasonal workers engaged through employment services, as many of the latter are not complying with their legal obligations. Where possible, we now require labour brokers to be audited along with the main employer at a member’s site, in one audit process to reduce costs. If this is not possible, we will audit the labour broker operation at that site separately (during the season when temporary workers are hired through the broker). Labour brokers supplying employees to the wine industry can also join WIETA in their own right and be audited to gain accreditation. One WIETA member has required their labour brokers to do this in May 2005, and we believe this will be an increasing trend (see the account elsewhere on this website of our workshop on labour brokers held in July 2005).

Is WIETA taking measures to ensure that smaller producers do not lose out on getting WIETA accreditation for financial reasons?

All producers, be they small or large, should comply with the code in whatever ways are feasible and appropriate for their size of operation and technology. To assist small producers, WIETA is looking at introducing additional subsidies for smaller producers to make the audit more affordable.

How is WIETA linked to the Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) movement?

The redistribution of wealth in South Africa is a slow process but one which WIETA is fully committed to supporting, provided this is done in such a way that that it has a positive impact on the livelihoods of the poorest and most disadvantaged in the sector.  We have been promoting the idea amongst industry stakeholders that social auditing outcomes should be taken into account when points are allocated to producers under the BEE Codes in terms of the industry BEE charter.  We feel that this would enhance the “Broad Based” nature of empowerment. However, some stakeholders hold the view that the WIETA code is based on South African labour legislation which is mandatory, and therefore should not confer empowerment points, and others point out that there are a plethora of Codes to which agriculture is pressured to comply, and why should the WIETA Code be special? In reply to these positions, we have been arguing that i) the WIETA code goes beyond the law in promoting joint worker/management participation in implementation, and worker education on employment standards and the Code. Also, parts of the WIETA Code introduce new substantive issues which must be addressed and which are not covered by legal regulation; ii) WIETA participation is a step that producers can take to institutionalise compliance with the legal standards as an integral part of their business. In other words, they are embracing the spirit of the laws rather than just the letter through a participative and developmental approach to sustainable employment practices in line with legislation iii) The WIETA code is a social code, monitored by social auditing under local stakeholder auspices. Other codes (such as Eurepgap, HACCP, BRC etc).  are technical requirements for exporting companies to developed world markets, monitored using technical appraisal with no local stakeholder oversight, and as such do not address social development outcomes of employment. There are two exceptions: the first is the Farm Health Award system of RUDNET, and WIETA has begun discussions with RUDNET on how we can learn from each other on the criteria they use for awards, and how they assess farms. The second is Fair Trade Labelling Organisation (FLO), which also requires social auditing, and this is why WIETA is in discussions with FLO over joint auditing and accreditation procedures.  Whilst we hear and understand the arguments against, we still believe that accreditation through recognised social auditing should be seriously considered as a meaningful contribution to broad-based black economic empowerment, and as such worthy of conferring points under BEE Codes to accredited enterprises. WIETA is participating in the continuing debate at the various BEE forums where we are represented.