Example in Action: Collaboration to Address Seasonal Migrant Child Labor in Turkey’s Hazelnut Harvest

Since 2011, the U.S.-based Fair Labor Association* (FLA) has been assessing working conditions at hazelnut farms in the Black Sea region of Türkiye, first as a special project commissioned by the multinational corporation Nestlé* and later as a collaboration between the FLA, Nestlé, and two of its Türkiye-based hazelnut suppliers, Balsu Gida* and Olam Progida.* Annually, the FLA sends a team of assessors to visit a sample of farms supplying hazelnuts to these companies. The presence of child labor has been a consistent finding both among local workers’ families and among the groups of migrant workers who travel to the region for the hazelnut harvest.

The companies have pursued several remediation strategies in response to these findings, such as civil society partnerships to build schools and provide scholarships for children of migrant workers. Further interventions have included training for farmers on child labor prohibitions and the provision of age-verification tools to encourage farmers to document the ages of their hired workers.

In November 2015, USDOL awarded the FLA a grant to pilot a comprehensive, sustainable program that implements the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Guidelines for Eliminating Child and Forced Labor in Agricultural Supply Chains in the hazelnut supply chains of Nestlé, Balsu, and Olam in Türkiye. With the conclusion of the project, FLA released an executive report in 2019 entitled “Are Companies’ Programs Impacting Change in the Lives of Hazelnut Workers?” that offered a social impact assessment of the project. In particular, the report noted that summer schools helped achieve project targets in providing a safe environment where children are supervised, and their basic needs are covered while family members work in the hazelnut gardens.

DOL welcomes examples of good practices
to address child labor and forced labor.

Email us at GlobalKids@dol.gov.