Social Policy
Tropical Cheese Industries, founded in 1982, is one of the leading producers and distributors of Latino targeted dairy products in the United States. Still a family owned and operated business, Tropical continues to exemplify its founding principles by providing our customers and consumers with authentic, high quality, dairy products and excellent customer service while providing our employees with a safe and healthy working environment. Tropical’s Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives continue to be an important part of our mission.
In keeping with this vision, Tropical has developed a Code of Ethics which expresses the overall set of values and principles that the company has adopted in performing its activities and in its relationships with all stakeholders. It has also decided to solidify its commitments by adopting a consistent SA8000:2014 Management System. This will allow the company to strengthen the foundational values of corporate social responsibility within the labor market and the civil society in which it operates.
Tropical’s Management is committed to making the SA8000:2014 Management System effective and operative and to continuously improve its efficiency.
Tropical’s management pledges to follow and comply with all of the requirements of the SA8000:2014 reference standard; the international standards and agreements and the reference Conventions of the International Labor Organization (ILO) referred to in the Standard; applicable national, state and local laws, and any other requirement voluntarily applied and adopted.
The specific commitments made to meet the SA8000:2014 requirements are as follows:
- Not engaging in or supporting the use of child labor
- Not engaging in or supporting the use of forced labor
- Providing a safe and healthy workplace environment and taking effective steps to prevent accidents, injuries and occupational illnesses
- Respecting the right of workers to participate in trade unions
- Not engaging in or supporting any type of discrimination against personnel based on any condition whatsoever
- Engaging in treating all personnel with dignity and respect
- Complying with the work hours set forth by law on a national and state level
- Paying employees a living wage which would be sufficient to afford a decent standard of living for the worker and their family
- Implementing a supplier qualification and monitoring process that also takes into account, as much as Tropical can ascertain, compliance with SA8000:2014
Management periodically verifies the effectiveness of the SA8000:2014 Management System and Policy through the System Review, during which all opportunities to improve corporate performance are evaluated and goals are established. Internal and external communications are designed to provide information regarding the results of the management of the program.
