This is the fourth session of Electronics Watch’s 2025 Knowledge Building Series for public buyers. It is part of an Innovation Pilot to strengthen and expand Electronics Watch’s impact model via webinars and online workshops that will help you understand risks in your supply chains.

We have 15 places available to LUPC full members on a first-come, first-served basis for this online workshop on advancing decent work in the seafood industry.

Why the seafood sector?
Seafood is the most traded food commodity globally, providing nutrition to billions and employing around 60 million people.

However, whether it is fresh or frozen, the seafood we find in university canteens, care homes or on hospital meal trays is likely fished and processed by workers who are subject to gross exploitation and rights violations. According to the ILO, 128,000 fisher workers are in situations of forced labour. The seafood sector is one of the most dangerous occupations, with an estimated 24,000 casualties a year.

A lot of seafood is caught in international waters where national labour laws do not apply, and there are many cases of human trafficking, poor working and living conditions, unfair or unpaid wages.

Many seafood workers spend months or even years at sea, with no escape, working up to 20 hours a day. Some are abandoned in foreign ports, with no wages paid, no permission to live and work there, and no way of getting home, while the captain runs away and shipowners hide behind flags of convenience and legal loopholes. Seafood companies lag behind other industries in addressing human and labour risks and ensuring safe and healthy working conditions

What you will learn

• The labour rights risks and challenges facing seafood workers
• How public buyers can manage these issues in tender and contracts: possible criteria and clauses,
• follow-ups with suppliers, challenges with certifications to manage risks
• Examples from multi-stakeholder initiatives involving trade unions, civil society organisations, industry
  bodies, governments and others: their achievements and challenges
• Key recommendations (do's & don'ts) for public buyers

The webinar will be interactive, combining insights from panellists with discussions among participants.

Joining information
We will send you an Electronics Watch registration link to all who have booked to attend by 23 June, enabling access to the zoom joining details. Please ensure you complete the registration link before the day of the webinar itself to avoid any issues with receiving the joining instructions.

Please contact Suzanne Picken for any queries.   

Please note that Electronics Watch will share attendance of LUPC members at the webinar with us for event reporting purposes.