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The Seafood Ethics Common Language Group

A group which brings people together to find out more about ethical sourcing and issues concerning labour and worker welfare.

The Seafood Ethics Common Language Group (SECLG) provides a safe meeting space to discuss the key ethical issues faced by the international seafood industry. The group looks at social welfare issues that affect the UK seafood supply chain, whether in the UK or seafood imported into the UK. This covers human trafficking, labour abuses, child labour, debt bondage, forced labour, migrant workers, and modern slavery. It is an opportunity to share new ideas or best practice case studies from around the world.

The group is led by our industry and we take responsibility for running the SECLG. The Group has met twice a year since 2014. The SECLG brings together seafood industry representatives from major supermarket chains, smaller retailers, processors, foodservice and the catching sector.  Other people who attend are not-for-profit voluntary groups, welfare charities, consumer groups, government and social research scientists.

There are generally two meetings a year. The presentations and minutes from the most recent meetings are below. Presentations and minutes from previous meetings are available from Karen Green.

Due to Covid-19 we are running shorter online bite-size SECLG meetings at the moment.

Next meeting

The next online meeting will be on 24 May 2022 from 2pm to 4pm BST. Working conditions in UK fishing.

Previous two bite-size meetings

Driving improvements in labour standards (1 March 2022). Under the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs), all business enterprises have a responsibility to respect human rights. The UK ratified the International Labour Organization Work in Fishing Convention (c188) in 2019. The Convention is intended to create a level playing field globally, force out sub-standard operations and provide minimum standards for decent work onboard fishing vessels. This meeting looked more closely at collaborative initiatives to drive the improvement of working conditions for fishers who commercially fish in UK waters and/or on UK flagged vessels, as well as globally. Our four speakers were:

The impacts of climate change on human rights in fisheries (30 November 2021). This meeting looked at the inter-connection of climate change and human rights from a socio-economic, political, cultural and institutional perspective. It focussed on the societal impact of climate change on wellbeing, local communities and migration; as well as looking at the impact of extreme weather on the sourcing of raw materials. Our three speakers were: 

Terms of Reference and archive

SECLG bite-size meeting notes

SECLG monthly newsletters

Further information

Our social responsibility work

  • Social responsibility is a key work area for us. As well as running the SECLG we also support the seafood industry in a number of key areas to help eliminate unethical practices from UK seafood supply chains. To find out more access our Social Responsibility in Seafood briefing note 

Contacts

For further information, please contact: Karen Green

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