Bettercoal is an international standard working towards a global responsible coal supply chain. Bettercoal does this by assessing the performance of coal mining operations against the twelve principles of the Bettercoal Code through the Producer Assessment Process. Each producer undergoes an independent on-site mine assessment, which incorporates labour representatives’ interviews, to assess how closely they meet the requirements of the Standard. Based on the assessment findings, actionable tasks/goals are set into a tailored Continuous Improvement Plan (CIP). This CIP supports the producer in working towards alignment with the 144 provisions of the Standard.
Bettercoal also supports continuous improvement in coal mining through a number of programmes, including webinars, country specific committees, knowledge sharing, etc.
The cross-border social dialogue component
Bettercoal engages with a wide variety of stakeholders through its Technical and Advisory Committee (TAC) that actively participate in industry initiatives, in-country workshops, meetings and sector related events. The TAC also advises the Board on all matters related to the Bettercoal Assurance process and the Bettercoal Code. Its work is focused on standards’ development and revision, the Bettercoal assurance model, and monitoring and evaluation of impacts. It plays an important stewardship role for the technical heart of Bettercoal’s programme, seeking net benefit for all stakeholders in the coal supply chain. The TAC makes recommendations to the Board. The Board must give all recommendations due attention and if the decision is to not implement the TAC recommendation, the Board must publish in writing the reasons why.
According to the Terms of Reference for the TAC, stakeholders are granted six seats, in addition to those four individual representatives from the membership companies of Bettercoal and four individual representatives from the coal suppliers participating in Bettercoal, to participate in the TAC. A representative from IndustriALL Global Union sits on this TAC.