You can access an independent whistleblowing platform / confidential helpline. Please use this link or scan this QR code. https://agrihr.speakup.report/issues Organisation Code: 104344



The platform is there for you to report safety concerns, corruption, discrimination, verbal or physical abuse or anything else you feel is not right.

You can report either with or without disclosing your identity and the platform is accessible 24 hour per day, every day.

Your message is read by the owner of AGRI-HR, Jan-Willem Naerebout, and the ethical support company Impactt Ltd. Please note that we will take genuine messages extremely seriously and we will always respond to those messages.

Messages are read during office hours 08:00 – 17:00 GMT Monday to Friday and sometimes outside these hours.

You can use the platform with confidence that your message will never be disclosed to another party without your express permission.

The platform is not designed to solve problems with routine employment issues or accommodation issues. These should always be resolved with your employer (the farm where you are placed).

The platform is also not designed for recruitment process related issues or helping friends & family get a job through AGRI-HR

The platform should only be used by people who have been placed with an employer through AGRI-HR (where AGRI-HR is your VISA Sponsor).

The platform is not a social media or messaging forum and for example messages with simply ‘Hello’ will not be answered.

Your can send messages in English, Bulgarian or Russian and the message will be machine translated. You can also upload documents or photos.

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OPERATIONAL PROTOCOL

• Risk categorisation. Each message received is categorized as low, medium, or high risk. Examples of each category include:
  • Low: information requests or thank you notification from workers.
    •  Escalation process: not needed
  • Medium: Workers provide feedback on systematic issues at the site, e.g. poor line supervisor behaviour
    • Escalation process:
      • Escalate to Fruitful Welfare Team within 48 hours
  • High: Critical situations reported such as threats of violence, sexual abuse, threats of dismissal, threat to life, retaliation related to reimbursement of recruitment.
    • Escalation process:
      • Escalate immediately to Fruitful; Welfare Team if this presents a danger to worker’s safety, or
      • at minimum within 48 hours if no immediate threat to worker safety.
      • Impactt will be part of the actionplan.
• Case status categorisation. A status is assigned to each case to better facilitate case management. These statuses indicate whether a case is closed or not through the following categorisations:
  • Closed: The case is closed. The worker in question confirms that the issue is resolved and that no further action is required.*
  • Open: No action has been taken by management to address the case.
  • In progress: The farm is aware of the case and is taking actions to investigate the issue and resolve the case.
  • *N.B.: If the worker is unreachable and we cannot confirm that the issue has been resolved, the case can be closed after two weeks of failed outreach attempts as long as the farm has provided satisfactory evidence that the issue has been addressed. Note that the case will need to be reopened if the worker states that the issue has not in fact been resolved.
• Confidentiality. All worker feedback is treated confidentially. Worker feedback is shared with farms in anonymised form, unless the worker provides permission to share details of their particular case. To note, the grievance line is a semi-independent grievance line as it is hosted on a third-party platform and operated by AGRI-HR themselves with Impactt’s support on grievance case management for High Risk issues.
• Assistance requests. When assistance requests are received, AGRI-HR will first ask the worker if they feel comfortable for AGRI-HR to raise their case with the farms. If consent is given, AGRI-HR will contact the farms, share the details of the case, and request a response. AGRI-HR will maintain contact with the worker throughout to understand how the farm is handling the case and whether the worker feels satisfied with the response.
• If there are any grievances established during worker interview, they must also be logged on the platform by the worker.
• Impactt’s role:
  • Agri HR will be in charge of keeping a log of requests received on the grievance platform. The Impactt team have visibility of all cases as they have access to the platform.
  • Impactt will:
    • Advise AGRI-HR on the prioritisation of cases
    • Follow-up with workers on grievances logged (in workers’ native language) to clearly establish facts.
    • Advise AGRI-HR on appropriate ways for investigation (e.g., phone workers (if worker consents), in-person investigation for serious issues, engagement with farms etc.)
    • Advise on remedy solutions where grievances are upheld.
  • Impactt’s main points of contact are:
    • David Rousseau, Principal Consultant (david@impacttlimited.com)
    • Noemie Job, Senior Consultant (noemie@impacttlimited.com)
    • Josie Collins, Consultant (josie@impacttlimited.com)
• High risk cases
  • Agri HR (with Impactt’s advice) will implement safeguarding actions while internal investigation is conducted.
  • Such actions will be based on aggrieved worker’s preferred course of action and may include:
    • AGRI-HR / Fruitfuljobs travelling to the farm to move workers to a temporary safe accommodation.
    • Referring workers to external service providers to meet the workers’ immediate, short-term needs such as:
      • ­Hospital or medical care/psychosocial support providers and counsellors
      • ­Interpreters or translators
      • ­Independent law firms or legal advisors
      • ­Government social services
      • ­Police
      • ­Local NGOs

PROCESS FLOW

Step 1: Grievance logged by workers on the Speak Up platform.

Step 2: AGRI-HR analyse grievance and report to Impactt. AGRI-HR will:
- Ensure the grievance relates to a current worker
- Assign a risk category (when it doubt, double check with Impactt)
- Report to Impactt medium and high risk cases.
- Include all details necessary for Impactt to follow-up and provide advice, including the workers’ name, nationality, language spoken, farms they are assigned to, arrival date, and contact details.

Step 3: Impactt will propose next steps/solutions.

Step 4 : AGRI-HR will report grievances to the farm while applying necessary safeguards recommended by Impactt, and ask the farm to provide a suggested solution within a defined deadline.

Step 5: AGRI-HR will update workers on next steps/proposed solution.

Step 6: Repeat steps 2-5 if the worker requests further support.

Step 7: Close case