the company strengthens its commitment against illegal hiring – Corriere.it

Princes Industrie Alimentari (Pia), the company that manages the largest tomato processing plant in Europe, is strengthening its commitment to the fight against illegal hiring and social sustainability in harvesting activities. This is confirmed by the research conducted with Oxfam Italia on working conditions in the fields of the Princes Industrie Alimentari supply chain. In fact, the survey highlighted the full regularity with respect to the contractual situation of the workers: 100% confirmed that they had a written contract and that they had found the job in a regular manner, without resorting to intermediaries; about 90% of workers stated that they received a salary adequate to cover their own basic needs and those of their families including accommodation, food and transport and 70% expressed a feeling of equality of economic treatment compared to their colleagues.

The commitment of Princes Industrie Alimentari.

To guarantee the affirmation of 100% ethical and Made in Capitanata tomatoes, it is necessary to strengthen and make effective the collaboration between all the parties devoted to a single objective, conveying investments and commitment in favor of the social, economic and environmental sustainability of the supply chain and of the evolution in key 4.0 of the sector. The research we conducted with Oxfam Italia is one of the fruits of this commitment and shows how joint actions and the sharing of objectives can generate concrete benefits for the community we address, commented Gianmarco Laviola, CEO of Princes Industrie Alimentari.

Involved 218 workers

The research involved a total of 218 male and female workers employed in 43 farms, members of 19 supplier cooperatives of Princes Industrie Alimentari, providing a snapshot of working conditions in the fields and allowing for the identification of new areas of action to be implemented in the context of the partnership with Oxfam Italy and as part of the network contract (ethical part) between Princes Industrie Alimentari and Coldiretti.

The challenge of sustainability

The survey shows that the most important challenge for the supply chain is represented by the ability to guarantee its sustainability, thanks to a strategy shared with all the players in the sector to support the Apulian tomato in the world. In this sense, Princes Industrie Alimentari promoted the comparison between the various protagonists of the sector thanks to the intervention of Paolo De Castro, vice president of the Commission for agriculture and rural development of the European Parliament, Giorgia Ceccarelli, Business & Human Rights Policy Advisor representatives of Coldiretti, Futuragri, OOSS CGIL Flai, Fai CISL and UILA UIL to encourage collaboration with third parties for the benefit of the tomato supply chain.