A Conversation with Richa Mittal

Each month, we'll share a one-on-one conversation with an FLA employee highlighting insights from their experience in the fair labor sector and their thoughts on the next 25 years of fair labor (in commemoration of FLA's 25th anniversary celebration in 2024).

With a 21-year history at the Fair Labor Association (FLA), Senior Director of Agriculture and Supply Chain Innovation Richa Mittal has witnessed a sea change in companies’ willingness to make social responsibility commitments. While FLA participating companies may have different motivations than the organization’s other two caucuses — universities and civil society organizations (CSOs) — all three constituencies share the common goal of improving the lives of workers in supply chains worldwide.?

Determining how to work toward that goal in partnership has taken time, Richa said, and developing empathy and understanding different concerns and perspectives is the most important lesson she has learned at FLA. Those qualities are also key to a successful collaboration that centers on workers and their rights.

Unsurprisingly, Richa’s favorite part of her work is spending time in the field interacting with the “rights-holders — workers, their families, and the farmers.” While she spends much of her time knee-deep in policy and program development and Fair Labor Accreditation implementation, “these interactions are FLA’s mission statement put in context and ground me,” Richa said. They serve as a continual reminder of why she first entered the human and labor rights space.

Practitioner’s Perspective: The Future of Fair Labor

Looking ahead, Richa identified several opportunities and challenges for the fair labor landscape’s next quarter-century.

First, mandatory human rights due diligence regulations will create a level playing field requiring all companies to act, instead of just those willing to undertake voluntary due diligence. Second, increased consumer awareness, fed in part by coverage and reporting in mainstream media, can help drive corporate social responsibility efforts. Finally, universities have an opportunity to embed responsible business conduct into academic coursework and programs, allowing students to prioritize social considerations in their career paths.

In contrast, she pointed out that it is difficult to enact business and human rights changes in regimes unfriendly to workers, especially when governments often stifle effective CSO monitoring. Additionally, a company’s attention to mitigating climate-related change can divert their focus away from fair labor work, as measuring the success of labor efforts requires more strategic thinking about KPIs.

Richa also noted, “People talk about [supply chain transparency] in either cotton or apparel, or in either leather or meat, but not [both industries] together… as a full value chain,” which is necessary to address upstream labor rights issues.

Out of the Office

Richa isn’t likely to spend her time off watching hours of Netflix on the couch, or relaxing outside in the sun all day. She enjoys the satisfaction of making a daily mental to-do list and being able to check off all the completed tasks in the evening. She loves playing board games and quizzes with her three kids. For her, that’s a perfect day.

And speaking of lists, one item on Richa’s bucket list is to explore Africa. She’s lobbying her family to go on a safari in Tanzania and she dreams of visiting the Egyptian pyramids — their history and mythology fascinate her. Travel in general is something Richa needs in life, as she enjoys exploring and learning about different cultures. Finally, she nourishes her body with spicy food (“I don’t function well without it!” she joked) and her soul with deep and meaningful interactions that examine topics like human nature and the meanings of religion and life.