NGO Global Labor Justice (GLJ) and allies in the Seafood Working Group (SWG) have issued an open letter to the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC), calling on the certification body to address labor abuses in certified fisheries.

The letter, signed by several SWG members, including the International Transport Workers' Federation, Humanity United, Freedom Fund, and Greenpeace US, asked the MSC "to take responsibility for the role of its social policies and processes in enabling the abuse of workers in certified fisheries and its attendant role in instances of certifying fish produced under conditions of labor exploitation."

According to the letter, at least 128,000 fishers are subjected to forced labor, while over 100,000 lose their lives annually due to hazardous conditions.

"Many fishers face grueling hours, withheld wages, abusive conditions, and extreme isolation, often with little to no protections or recourse. Despite these alarming conditions, seafood from such fleets continues to enter European and US markets. This systemic disregard for fishers' labor rights in the seafood sector is unacceptable and must urgently be addressed," the letter reads.

Due to increasing attention to the exploitation of migrant fishers and recent reports of forced labor incidents in MSC-certified fisheries, the MSC is facing scrutiny for failing to take responsibility for how its social policies and processes contribute to unchecked labor abuse in certified fisheries, according to the NGOs.

The SWG called on the MSC to be transparent about its ecolabel's limitations in protecting labor rights.

"Member organizations within the SWG have called on the MSC to be transparent, ensuring that all stakeholders -- including consumers -- understand that the MSC ecolabel does not, and cannot, safeguard against labor rights violations. Additionally, the letter demands that MSC must inform companies that relying solely on the MSC ecolabel for sourcing decisions without considering labor standards enables labor exploitation of workers and exposes companies to significant reputational risks."

"As the MSC does not provide adequate assurance for the protection of labor rights, the letter recommends that the MSC clearly acknowledge the label's limitations, actively and publicly endorse legally binding solutions to effectively protect fishers' labor rights, and promote other mechanisms that allow workers to assert their collective agency to monitor, enforce, and remedy labor rights violations."

You can read the full letter here.

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An MSC spokesperson told Undercurrent News: "The presence of forced labor anywhere in the world is deeply distressing and unacceptable. As this letter highlights, widespread labor issues in the seafood industry are a significant challenge for the sector. We support efforts to address them and have requirements aimed at doing this."

Fisheries engaged in the MSC program must describe measures in place to prevent forced labor, and any fishery convicted of this, on vessels or in their supply chains, are excluded from being part of the MSC program, they continued.

"However, the MSC standard is an environmental one, rooted in the science of fisheries management, and the ecolabel makes no social claims. Our labor eligibility requirements are pre-entry requirements that entities have to meet before they are allowed to be audited against MSC's fisheries and chain of custody standards."

"A global survey of more than 20,000 people, carried out in 2024 by research organization Globescan, found that 99% of consumers do not associate the MSC ecolabel with working conditions and social responsibility," the MSC added.

"We recognise this is a rapidly changing space, and we are currently reviewing our requirements to see if they can be adapted to support businesses to meet their obligations for emerging due diligence legislation. We intend to continue working in partnership with experts on this issue to help the seafood sector make progress."