Trading Fairly
-Fair-trade
This is an approach to trading which aims to ensure that the producers working in other countries gain a fair deal for their work. It helps to eliminate poor working conditions and low pay rates aswell as human exploitation in other countries. Fair trade products are usually more expensive to buy however it shows that the worker has not been exploited in order to produce that product and part of the profit is given back to them. Items usually include things such as bananas, tea bags, coffee and chocolate.
Fair trade is a social implication for Innocent because they need to think about where they are getting their ingredients from and how the ingredients are being produced. The main ingredient that is involved is the fruit. To be ethical Innocent need to find a supplier who treat their workers fairly and pay them fairly. In order for the fruit to be fair trade the workers in other countries such as Ghana will be paid a good rate and will not be exploited. It is important that Innocent find a good supplier who operates fairly because if they chose a supplier who treat their workers poorly and pay them hardly any money then people would see Innocent as an unethical business who are in a way supporting un fair trade.
Legal and Regulatory Compliance
There are areas of the law that all businesses must follow. Innocent need to make sure they comply with regulations to an ethical and moral level. They also need to comply with the legal rules in order for the business to be successful. If Innocent do not comply they would get into trouble for breaking the law and their business would fail. Therefore they need to think about the activities of their business to ensure that they are operating ethically and legally.
-Consumer Protection Law
A section of the consumer law is the consumer protection law which is put in place to protect customers; Innocent need to do several things so that they are not breaking this law. They need to make sure that the descriptions of the smoothies and products that they produce are as accurate as possible because giving a false description or misleading the customer will be breaking the law.
In order to comply with this law Innocent need to ensure their products fit the description, be fit for its purpose and be of satisfactory quality. For example. Innocent cannot give a false description by saying that the product contains less calories than it actually does. Innocent should also use fruit of good quality in their products because using really poor quality ingredients could be counted as not being of satisfactory quality.
- The Trade Descriptions Act
This is another law that Innocent must comply by which includes the description of the goods that the business are selling. It is in place to prohibit wrong descriptions of goods and services. It also prohibits businesses against giving false descriptions and misleading customers.
Innocent need to ensure that the descriptions of their products are accurate and true so that they do not break this law.
Protecting Employees
The Government have established a law that protects employees of a business and it is called the employment law. Innocent need to comply by this law and they can do this by treating employees fairly and without discrimination. There are three main laws that are put in place to protect employees;
- The Sex Discrimination Act 1975
This law outlaws Innocent discriminating employees on the terms of gender and marital status.
Innocent cannot give favourable treatment between males and females in terms of pay and conditions of employment. If they do then they will be breaking the law so this is a social implication for Innocent.
All of these laws put Innocent under an obligation to treat their employees in a fair and open way. Employees are also protected under health and safety laws and regulations so Innocent will need to ensure the workplace for all of their employees is a safe environment and they may also need to provide additional training to make sure they meet these laws.
