Carving change: Improving working conditions in natural stone supply chains in India and Brazil

The project goal is: improved employment and working conditions for workers in natural stone supply chains in India and Brazil to empower workers and improve working conditions in the natural stone supply chains of India and Brazil by promoting responsible business conduct among importers, exporters, and upstream suppliers.

Expected results: 

1. Effective project management and productive collaboration. Who will be responsible? Arisa (lead) and all project partners.
2. Policies and practices of importing companies enable effective identification, prevention, mitigating and remediation of adverse human rights risks and impacts in the supply chain. Who will be responsible? Participating companies, with support of Arisa and FNV.
3. Mitigation and remediation of adverse impacts in the targeted supply chains, with a focus on occupational health and safety, improving access to rights based entitlements for workers and their families, improved social dialogue and access to grievance channels, child labour. Who will be responsible? All project partners. Child labour particularly by project partners involved in Rajasthan.
4. Adverse impacts in natural stone supply chains are addressed through collective action, knowledge exchange, and the sharing of good practices. Who will be responsible? All project partners.
5. Communication, upscaling and sustainable continuation of project activities.

This project focusses on the natural stone sector. It has a particular focus on the sandstone, granites, black slates and quartzites supply chains. Sandstone is used for the production cobbles and tiles. Granite is used for the production of kitchen tops, windowsills, grave stones, among others. Black slates are used for the production of tiles, amongst others. 

The natural stone sector in the Netherlands and Belgium comprises several hundred companies specialising in the import and processing of natural stone and natural stone-based products such as (kitchen) worktops, gravestones, monuments, slabs, façade materials and kerbstones. The great majority of companies can be classified as small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Natural stone is quarried and processed in many parts of the world, in many cases under conditions that violate human rights/labour rights and are harmful to the environment. The Parties within the TruStone Initiative have identified seven specific International Responsible Business Conduct (IRBC)-related themes that should be prioritised by companies in the Netherlands and Flanders active in the natural stone sector. These themes are, in no particular order: 

• Discrimination and gender;
• Child labour;
• Forced labour;
• Living wage;
• Right to organise and right to collective bargaining;
• Health and safety; and
• Land rights and the living environment (including air, soil and water pollution).