A social dialogue best practice

How a successful social dialogue emerged from a conflict in an agricultural export company with over 16,000 employees. You can see the whole story in the video.

The Peruvian agricultural export company Camposol is one of the largest exporters of fresh fruit and vegetables to the US and Europe (including the Netherlands). The company employs more than 16,000 people. Until 2014, the trade unions and the company never agreed and did not talk to each other. There was no trust. A big strike brought the realisation that things had to change. The conflict gave rise to a successful social dialogue between the company and the workers.

Via Mondiaal FNV and the SER in the Netherlands, the management and the union learned how consultations between employees and employers work. There is now peace at work, and thanks to the ongoing dialogue, working conditions have also improved.

Cooperation for the entire sector

Since this experience with Camposol and its union, Sitecasa, we have been working to scale up this example to the entire fruit and vegetable export sector. For some years now we have been working together with the Ethical Trading Initiative from England on this project. In Peru, an advisory group was formed in which Peruvian producers, experts, British buyers and trade unions work together to promote dialogue throughout the sector. This initiative is called 'Fruits of Peruvian Dialogue'. See also: fruitsofperuviandialogue.org

Video best practice

In this video, company and unions tell the whole story: how conflict can lead to good consultation and labour peace.