Team Members

Our Management Approach

Our managers reinforce Pilgrim’s culture of respect by being available to team members who want to discuss issues. All management policies and programs are annually reviewed by management teams, and specific team member issues are reviewed weekly or as frequently as necessary to address issues.

To ensure our policies and programs are functioning correctly, Pilgrim’s measures and evaluates health and safety, turnover, absenteeism and overtime indicators each week. This allows us to make immediate adjustments if necessary and ensure team member health, safety and working conditions are upheld according to Pilgrim’s standards across all facilities.

We operate all our facilities in compliance with labor and human rights laws. We also adhere to strict internal policies and programs that provide additional guidance to best serve our team members. The company has a zero-tolerance policy on child and forced labor. Additionally, in the U.S. we do not use prison labor at our facilities. Our background check policy does support re-entry into the workforce, of persons with a criminal record, dependent on several factors including the assessment of potential risks and liabilities, the “nature and gravity” of the individual’s criminal offense or conduct and the nature of the duties and essential function of the position sought. Pilgrim’s does not permit degrading conditions in the workplace that could put our team members’ health or lives at risk. We uphold applicable wage and hour laws, such as minimum wage and overtime compensation, and legally mandated benefits. In the U.S., for our hourly team members, we do a competitive wage analysis two times per year and for salaried team members we do a competitive wage analysis one time per year to ensure we are paying competitively for where they work and live. Salaries are adjusted as necessary based on these competitive wage analyses. We also respect our team members’ rights of association, of joining labor unions and of collective bargaining. In 2019, 62% of our team members working in the U.S. and Puerto Rico, 75% in Mexico and 34% in Europe were covered by collective bargaining agreements.

Our Code of Conduct and Ethics

Pilgrim’s Code of Conduct and Ethics includes behavioral guidelines and standards to ensure appropriate workplace conduct, efficient and safe operations and the well-being of our team members. All Pilgrim’s team members receive annual in-person, online or video-based training on the Code of Conduct and Ethics.

The Pilgrim’s Code of Conduct and Ethics applies to all team members. The Code has policies for each of the company’s major risk areas, including team member safety, food safety, environmental compliance, animal welfare, corporate ethics, workplace conduct and taxation and finance. All Pilgrim’s managers are responsible for enforcing the Code of Conduct and Ethics in their divisions.

In addition to Code of Conduct and Ethics training, new team members also receive an ethics handbook during orientation and are expected to abide by our policies regardless of their position in the company. Corrective actions for violating the Code or company policies include coaching, written warnings, final written warnings and, if necessary, termination of employment. Serious violations such as theft can result in immediate termination.

Additionally, Pilgrim’s provides all employees of all levels with harassment training annually. Harassment of employees by supervisors or co-workers is a violation of federal law and company policy. Pilgrim’s has in place a policy concerning all forms of harassment, including, but no limited to sex-based harassment, harassment and retaliation against individuals who report any form of harassment in our workplace.