Navigating MSC Forced and Child Labour Eligibility Requirements

Regulatory context and social eligibility requirements rationale

The Marine Stewardship Council framework incorporates social accountability alongside environmental and supply chain integrity standards. Quality managers, compliance leads, and internal auditors must understand that social eligibility is a mandatory prerequisite for holding certification. Rather than conducting social compliance audits across all seafood supply chains, the standard establishes explicit exclusion thresholds and self-declaration mechanisms to verify the absence of forced and child labour.

This regulatory framework affects fisheries, at-sea processing vessels, land-based processors, contract packers, and group certificate holders. While environmental performance is evaluated against fishery and chain of custody standards, social eligibility operates as a strict gating requirement under the MSC Forced and Child Labour Eligibility Requirements. Failing to satisfy these requirements results in immediate ineligibility, preventing certification body auditors from initiating or finalizing certification audits.

The two-year conviction rule and mandatory entity exclusions

Under Clause 3.1.1 of the MSC Forced and Child Labour Eligibility Requirements v2.0, any applicant or certificate holder must not have been convicted for a forced or child labour violation within the preceding two years. Clause 3.1.1.1(a) extends this mandate to all individual sites, vessels, subcontractors, and group members within the scope of a certificate. Guidance 3.1.1 defines forced labour in accordance with International Labour Organisation principles as non-voluntary work exacted under threat of penalty, while child labour includes work that interferes with schooling or harms physical development.

If an entity within a certificate receives a legal conviction for forced or child labour, Clause 3.1.1.1(d) requires the certificate holder to exclude that entity or render its certificate membership status invalid for two years. Under Clause 3.1.1.1(e), the certificate holder must inform its certification body immediately upon excluding a convicted entity. If a certificate holder fails or refuses to exclude a convicted entity, Clause 3.1.1.2(d) mandates that the certification body suspend the certificate under Section 7.4 of the MSC General Certification Requirements v2.6, enforcing a minimum suspension period of three months under Clause 7.4.15.

Submission of forced and child labour policy statements

Specific operational activities trigger mandatory reporting requirements beyond basic conviction checks. Under Section 4.1, at-sea fishery applicants and at-sea chain of custody operations must document their labour policies, practices, and measures in Section 2 of the MSC At Sea Forced and Child Labour Eligibility Requirements Reporting Template. Fishery applicants must submit this template concurrently with the Client Document Checklist, while at-sea chain of custody entities must submit it on or before the audit date.

For land-based chain of custody entities, Section 5.1 mandates policy statement submissions for organisations performing specific high-risk activities. Under Clause 5.1.1, these activities include contract processing, packing, repacking, primary processing, secondary processing, preservation processing, and other physical processing. Under Clause 5.1.2, land-based operations must complete and submit the MSC Chain of Custody Forced and Child Labour Eligibility Requirements Reporting Template on or before audit day. Guidance 4.1.2 notes that certification bodies are required to confirm template completeness and upload reports to the scheme database, but are not required to perform on-site social audits of the self-declared policy content.

What to do now

• Audit all legal entities, processing sites, and harvesting vessels within the certificate scope to verify the absence of forced or child labour convictions over the past two years under Clause 3.1.1.
• Establish an internal reporting procedure requiring immediate notification to the compliance lead if any site or subcontractor faces legal prosecution or conviction.
• Complete Section 2 of the MSC At Sea Forced and Child Labour Eligibility Requirements Reporting Template for all fishing vessels and at-sea processing units under Clause 4.1.1.
• Submit the completed MSC Chain of Custody Forced and Child Labour Eligibility Requirements Reporting Template prior to annual surveillance audits for all facilities conducting processing or repacking under Clause 5.1.2.
• Ensure signed agreements and group site registers explicitly allow the central office to render an entity's certificate membership status invalid within two days if a conviction occurs under Clause 3.1.1.1(d).

Reference documents

• MSC Forced and Child Labour Eligibility Requirements v2.0
• MSC Labour Eligibility Requirements v1.0
• MSC General Certification Requirements v2.6
• MSC Chain of Custody Certification Requirements v3.2
• MSC Chain of Custody Standard: Default Version v5.1
• MSC Chain of Custody Standard: Group Version v2.1