Alphonsa Cashew Industries Sustainable and Responsible Procurement Guidelines for Direct Procurement Programme is based on our Human Rights, Labour and Environmental Policies and reflects our commitment for human rights across our value chain. All of our suppliers are required to implement and follow our Sustainable and Responsible Procurement Guidelines. We work very closely and extend our full support to small holder farmers who face difficulty in implementing and following our guidelines due to financial and infrastructure difficulties. Farmer Management System (FMS) is a cloud application that comes under the sphere of our Procurement Management System, a powerful gamut of applications that is the prime enabler of our Direct Procurement Program giving us and our customers complete visibility over the supply chain. FMS has been built in-house using a comprehensive framework that includes metrics from Sustainability and Responsibility parameters including Food Safety, Social, Environment, Labour, Human Rights and Economic indicators. The system draws insights from our extensive years of experience on the ground in six origins spread across West and East Africa. Suppliers must not provide employment to children before they have completed their compulsory education and in any event not before they reach the age of 15 (fifteen) as per ILO conventions (Minimum Age Convention, No. 138 and Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention, No. 182). Suppliers including small holder farmers and aggregators should have effective procedures in place to verify the age of workers prior to employment. Young workers must not do work that deprives them of attending schooling or that is harmful or dangerous. Suppliers are also expected to comply with all reporting obligations regarding the abolition of child labour and human trafficking. Alphonsa Cashew Industries recognise that in certain social circumstances children’s participation in work can be positive to the upliftment of their family and support their own development. This is acceptable as long as the work is not likely harm their health, personal development or interfere with their education and is conducted in line with the Children’s Rights and Business Principles as defined by UNICEF, the UN Global Compact and Save the Children, ILO conventions and national law. If any breaches to our guidelines of child labour and young people are identified in relation to the employment of children and young people, appropriate remedial measures should be taken which put the interests of the children / young people and their families first. Alphonsa Cashew Industries expects all of its suppliers to treat all their employees and workers with respect and dignity. Diversity in the workplace should be embraced and respected. Suppliers are also expected to recruit, employ and promote employees on the sole basis of the qualifications and abilities needed for the work to be performed, without regard to race, age, gender, national origin, religion or any other category not relevant to performance. Men and women should receive equal pay for equal work and steps should be taken during hiring and promotion to increase gender diversity. Everyone working on farms should be treated equally and not subject to any form of discrimination based on, but not limited to, race, religion, culture, gender, age, political opinion, national extraction, social origin, pregnancy and maternity, sexual orientation or any other arbitrary means. Raw cashew nuts are predominately collected by women workers in farms. Farmers should recognise that women may be impacted in different ways to men, farmers should take steps to ensure that working practices are developed and implemented in ways which enable participation of women. All forms of physical, verbal, and written harassment are prohibited. Farmers must not engage in corporal punishment or take disciplinary-related deductions from workers’ pay. Harassment and abuse of any form are not tolerated. We are committed to upholding the highest standards of human rights for our workforce. We ensure that no employees, suppliers, customers or any other contacts are subjected to discrimination. Discrimination implies a distinction, exclusion or preference for which the underlying reasoning is based on prejudice rather than a legitimate reason, resulting in the suppression of equal opportunity or treatment. Unfounded reasons for discrimination include gender, age, origin, religion, sexual orientation, physical appearance, pregnancy, invalidity and union membership. We are committed to combating all forms of discrimination in recruitment, training and career management. We encourage an atmosphere of camaraderie and active engagement at our workplace. Being strong believers of teamwork, we an open door policy which allows any employee no matter what the rank or designation to represent his/her case or complaint directly to the Chairman or Director. All identities are kept confidential in order to protect the employee from workplace retaliation.