The Wine Society pushes wine suppliers to confront labor risks

Labor standards in the wine industry are moving higher on the agenda for producers, retailers and importers, even if the issue is still seen by some in the trade as less marketable than climate or packaging claims.

That shift was on display after a panel at last month’s London Wine Fair, where industry speakers argued that wineries and merchants need both incentives and pressure to improve conditions for seasonal workers and others across the supply chain. The discussion centered on labor risks in vineyards and grape sourcing, and on the growing expectation that wine businesses show they are checking for exploitation, poor housing, unsafe heat exposure and other worker welfare problems.

Anne Jones, a wine sustainability consultant who previously served on the board of Global Sustainable Wine Roundtable and spent more than 13 years as category manager for beer, wine and spirits at Waitrose, said one way to bring retailers on board is to show that stronger labor practices make business sense. She said better standards can support continuity, staff retention and efficiency, while also helping brands build loyalty and reinforce quality.

Jones said labor practices should become part of how the trade defines quality, not only from an ethical standpoint but also from an operational one. In her view, a business that aligns with customer values on sustainability and sourcing may strengthen trust even when consumers are not asking detailed questions about labor conditions.

She also said certifications matter more when they include social and labor criteria. According to Jones, some certification systems were initially designed without those elements, but market requirements have changed. She pointed to the Swedish alcohol retail monopoly Systembolaget as an example of a buyer whose recognition standards now require social components. That kind of demand can affect entire producing regions because suppliers often need to adapt across a broad base.

The Wine Society, the British wine retailer and member-owned cooperative, has responded by creating a five-step guide intended to help wine businesses identify and address labor risks in their own operations and in their supply chains. Dom de Ville, the group’s director of sustainability and social impact, said many tools exist in other sectors but not specifically for wine producers trying to manage human rights due diligence.

He described the challenge through the example of a small or medium-sized producer in Beaune making 400,000 bottles a year, hiring 50 seasonal workers and buying grapes from several growers who also rely on seasonal labor. In that situation, he said, there has been no simple step-by-step framework tailored to wine.

The Wine Society’s plan starts with a formal commitment to tackle exploitation and assign responsibility inside the business. It then calls for companies to assess where risks exist for workers in their own operations and in their supply chains. That includes asking where people are employed, whether they work in extreme heat, whether labor providers are involved, how workers are paid and whether there are concerns around accommodation, sanitation, services or disease.

After identifying risks, businesses are asked to rank priorities and create an action plan with goals and timelines. Suppliers are then expected to share their own documentation after going through the same first steps themselves. The final stage focuses on continuous improvement by tracking what is working, what is not and what needs to change.

De Ville described the approach as standard human rights due diligence rather than a new invention. He said its value lies in helping producers identify key risks for seasonal workers in a practical way.

The guide has been translated into French, Spanish, Italian and Portuguese and is available free on The Wine Society’s website. De Ville said the aim is to give producers examples of what a public commitment looks like, how to conduct a risk assessment and what questions to ask labor agencies or other suppliers.

The rollout began internally in February. By mid-May, about 15 to 20 suppliers had been trained and had already reached the fourth stage of the process. The short-term goal is for all 160 own-label and key suppliers to complete the first four steps by the end of this year after training. The longer-term target is to extend that work to its full supplier base of about 800 suppliers next year.

Jones said efforts to compare different certification systems could also help retailers by showing where standards overlap and where they differ. She added that once one company creates a workable process, it becomes easier for others in British retail to adopt similar practices.

That matters beyond one cooperative or one category. European retailers are under growing pressure to examine risks deeper in their supply chains, and wine is unlikely to remain outside that trend. For beverage companies more broadly, stronger social due diligence could become part of future purchasing requirements alongside environmental reporting. That raises the prospect that wineries, brewers and spirits producers will face more requests from buyers for documentation on labor practices and certifications that include worker protections, especially as reputational and regulatory risks increase.

The debate also reflects a wider change in how drinks companies talk about sustainability. Carbon emissions and packaging still dominate many public commitments, but labor conditions are becoming harder to separate from brand value, sourcing policy and access to major retail channels. In practice, that means issues once treated as back-office compliance may now shape commercial relationships across the wine trade.