4.2 Recruitment Fees
About the data
KnowTheChain benchmarks current corporate practices, develops insights, and provides practical resources that inform investor decisions and enable companies to comply with growing legal obligations while operating more transparently and responsibly.
The KnowTheChain benchmarks aim to help companies protect the wellbeing of workers by incentivizing companies and identifying gaps in each sector evaluated.
The KnowTheChain methodology is based on the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and covers policy commitments, due diligence, and remedy. The methodology uses the ILO core labor standards (which cover the human rights that the ILO has declared to be fundamental rights at work: freedom of association, the right to collective bargaining, and the elimination of forced labor, child labor, and discrimination) as a baseline standard. The methodology has been developed through consultation with a wide range of stakeholders and a review of other benchmarks, frameworks, and guidelines such as the OECD Due Diligence Guidance on Responsible Business Conduct.
Methodology
The company requires that no worker in its supply chains should pay for a job—the costs of recruitment (i.e., recruitment fees and related costs) should be borne not by the worker but by the employer ("Employer Pays Principle"). If it discovers that fees have been paid by workers in its supply chains, the company takes steps to ensure that such fees are reimbursed to the workers and/or provides evidence of payment of recruitment-related fees by suppliers. According to the ILO, workers should not be charged directly or indirectly, in whole or in part, any fees for recruitment or related costs (such as costs for training, medical tests, or travel).
The company:
(1) requires that no worker in its supply chains should pay for a job—the costs of recruitment (i.e., recruitment fees and related costs) should be borne not by the worker but by the employer ("Employer Pays Principle"); and
(2) takes steps to ensure that such fees are reimbursed to the workers and/or provides evidence of payment of recruitment-related fees by suppliers if it discovers that fees have been paid by workers in its supply chains.