Human Rights in the Supply Chain

We strive to identify and quantify our human rights impacts, mitigate risks, and maximize opportunity for people and communities, consistent with our Global Human Rights Policy, the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs), and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Due Diligence Guidelines for Responsible Business Conduct.

Cisco has multiple policies which aim to uphold human rights in our supply chain and we require that suppliers comply. Policies can be found on our website, including:

• Our Supplier Code of Conduct, which is the same as the Responsible Business Alliance (RBA) Code of Conduct
• Responsible Minerals Policy
• Supplier Ethics Policy
• Respecting the Rights of Vulnerable Groups Policy

When we become aware of a potential violation of our policies, we work to investigate, assess, mitigate, and remedy adverse human rights impacts. A list of salient human rights risks can be found in our Global Human Rights Policy. We also provide more information on how we address specific risks, including forced labor, child labor, and minerals sourcing in the additional resources below:

• Cisco Statement on the Prevention of Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking
• Supplier Code of Conduct due diligence processes
• Cisco Conflict Minerals Report

All supply chain employees are required to complete human rights training every two years. This training includes:

• Cisco policies on forced labor and child labor
• How to detect warning signs of serious risks such as health and safety issues and forced labor
• How to hold suppliers accountable
• How to report concerns if an employee suspects a violation of Cisco’s standards and policies

The training is based on international standards, such as the International Labour Organization (ILO) indicators of Forced Labor, and is updated every two years to keep pace with regulatory and industry changes. In fiscal 2024, 100% of Supply Chain Operations employees — which includes those responsible for sourcing and procurement, supplier management, planning, manufacturing, logistics, quality, and other roles involved in day-to-day supply chain operations — completed this training. Our e-learning trainings include a quiz at the end to assess learning attainment and downloadable resources for employees to refer to in their work.

In addition to exercising leverage directly with our suppliers, we collaborate with industry peers through the RBA and its Responsible Labor Initiative and the Responsible Minerals Initiative (RMI). Participation in these multi-industry, multistakeholder initiatives that promote the rights of vulnerable workers in global supply chains helps to drive consistent expectations for due diligence and remediation across the industry.

Prohibiting Forced Labor and Modern Slavery

Cisco’s Supplier Code of Conduct aims to uphold workers’ rights to be free from forced labor, aligning with the ILO Indicators of Forced Labour. Supplier site assessments identify key risk indicators, such as unethical recruitment, identity document retention, wage withholding, poor working conditions, debt bondage, and restriction of movement. To prevent forced labor through debt bondage, Cisco adheres to the RBA Definition of Fees policy, which prohibits workers paying fees to obtain, maintain, or leave employment, even if these fees are permissible by local law. Under the RBA Code, suppliers are required to mitigate forced labor risks and remediate impacts on affected workers.

Each year, we audit suppliers to assess their conformance to the RBA Code and identify and address any gaps. In fiscal 2025, audits continued to uncover nonconformances to our Code for the Prohibition of Forced Labor category, including manufacturing partners, component suppliers, and sub-tier suppliers. These nonconformances ranged in severity from Priority to Major to Minor.¹

Most Major and Minor nonconformances in the Prohibition of Forced Labor category were related to workers paying small recruitment fees, often amounting to less than 5% of their monthly wages. Less often, we saw Priority level findings, some of which identified risks of bonded labor, a type of forced labor. Typically, this involved foreign migrant workers who paid excessive recruitment fees equivalent to a month or more of their gross wages.

Recruitment fees commonly arise when suppliers use external labor agencies or brokers to recruit workers for cross-border or large-scale hiring. In these cases, foreign migrant workers may be required to pay substantial fees to labor agencies for services, such as job placement, travel arrangements, visas, medical examinations, and other administrative costs. These fees may be charged up front or deducted from workers' wages over time and may increase when multiple intermediaries are involved in the recruitment process. Such practices are strictly prohibited, as they pose a serious risk of debt bondage when workers are compelled to remain employed to repay loans or excessive fees to labor brokers. While some suppliers have the practice of reimbursing workers after commencement of employment, this is not in conformance to our Code or expectations.

Cisco is committed to upholding the Employer Pays Principle, aiming to ensure that all recruitment-related costs are borne by the employer, not the worker. This approach is central to protecting vulnerable workers and promoting ethical recruitment practices across our supply chain. Our teams actively work with suppliers to implement employer payment of these fees directly, rather than having employers reimburse these fees to workers after the harm has already occurred.

If bonded labor concerns are identified, we engage directly with our suppliers to facilitate appropriate backward-looking remedies that address past impacts and forward-looking remedies to avoid causing further harm or prevent harm to other workers. Remediation measures may include, but are not limited to, the following actions:

1. Immediate Cessation of Recruitment Fees
   • Instruct suppliers to promptly discontinue the practice of allowing recruitment or related fees to be charged to workers.
2. Implementation of the Employer Pays Principle
   • Direct suppliers to develop and implement policies and procedures to mitigate forced labor risks and to ensure that all recruitment fees are borne by the employer, not the worker. This includes amending agreements and contracts with labor brokers, amending terms and conditions in worker contracts, and instituting a process for assessing labor brokers so that only ethical recruiters are used.
   • Request suppliers to provide Cisco with updated policies and documented evidence demonstrating that these changes have been communicated to all workers.
3. Completion of an RBA-Approved Third-Party Fee Investigation
   • For fees exceeding one month's wage, require suppliers to engage an RBA-approved third-party to conduct an onsite investigation to assess the scale and scope of impacted workers and the amount of fees paid by both current and recently departed workers.
   • Workers are interviewed with the goal of identifying fees they paid along their recruitment journey from the country of departure to the destination country of employment, recurring fees deducted from their paychecks, or fees paid to other intermediaries or for travel.
4. Submission of Fee Reimbursement Plan
   • Support suppliers in developing a fee reimbursement plan and ensure it is submitted to, and approved by, the RBA.
5. Oversight of Worker Reimbursement
   • Cisco monitors the supplier’s implementation of a reimbursement plan to ensure the timely repayment of recruitment fees to all current workers, as well as to departed workers who left within six months of the fees being identified.
6. Validation of Remediation
   • Request suppliers provide signed acknowledgments from affected workers confirming their understanding of the reimbursement, the amounts received, and that all relevant fees have been included. Additional supporting documentation, such as pay slips and bank transfer records, may also be requested.
   • If warranted, require subsequent RBA audits to confirm that affected workers have been adequately remediated.

During fiscal 2025, we drove more than US$1.7 million in fee reimbursements to 7,146 workers across our direct and sub-tier suppliers for recruitment fees occurring in Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, Vietnam, and China. 100% of forced labor Priority nonconformances identified are either closed or are in progress of being remediated. An overview of the number of RBA nonconformances found related to forced labor can be seen in our published audit data with their geographic distribution.

Cisco aims to continuously improve our due diligence processes based on what we have learned. Recently, forced labor risks have been most commonly uncovered as we assess new component suppliers, new facility locations, and extend our reach into our sub-tier suppliers with whom we do not have direct contractual relationships. Accordingly, we have strengthened our due diligence during the new supplier and new site onboarding processes and during the acquisition integration processes. By identifying, addressing, and remediating risks before launching or scaling business with a supplier, we aim to prevent harm to workers and ensure that essential remediation actions are implemented at a point when we have leverage: the period before awarding business to a supplier or facility. When assessing forced labor risks at prospective supplier sites prior to production during fiscal 2025, we did not identify any forced labor risks.

We continue to build suppliers’ capacity to meet international expectations around human rights due diligence, including forced labor due diligence, and to address these issues more broadly and deeper within the supply chain. This prevents risks in our own supply chain and promotes international standards so that they are followed throughout the industry for the betterment of all electronics workers.

Over the past four years, we have delivered comprehensive forced labor training to our supply base. This two-day program emphasizes expectations under the Code and provides participants with practical tools for forced labor due diligence, such as the Responsible Recruitment Due Diligence Toolkit. Although we initially planned to deliver this training again in fiscal 2025, we have rescheduled it for early fiscal 2026 to maximize participation and engage a broader group of suppliers.

To further our commitment, we launched a comprehensive sub-tier due diligence survey with all Cisco manufacturing partners in fiscal 2025 based on the OECD due diligence framework. Cisco designed the survey, collected and reviewed survey responses, conducted manufacturing partner interviews, and evaluated their policies and practices for potential forced labor due diligence gaps in alignment with the OECD framework. Cisco is providing tailored support, including targeted training, information sharing, and peer-to-peer learning to promote collaboration among partners. Additionally, the survey captured valuable information on labor agencies, which will help strengthen our ongoing efforts to map labor migration patterns and corridors.

Protecting Young Workers

Our standards for protecting young workers (ages 15 to 18), in jurisdictions where individuals are legally permitted to work under the age of 18, are outlined in the Juvenile Labor Policy and Expectations. Our policy and due diligence are informed by international standards, such as the ILO-IOE Child Labour Guidance Tool for Business. In fiscal 2025, Cisco did not identify cases of underage child labor (workers under the age of 15). One nonconformance related to young workers was identified, involving a group of apprentice and trainee workers who were employed for more than six months and received stipends below the applicable minimum wage threshold in the jurisdiction where the workers were employed. In response, we initiated a Corrective Action Plan (CAP) to address this issue, which is currently progressing toward timely closure.

Controlling Working Hours and Days of Rest

Working hours and days of rest continue to be a chronic issue in the electronics industry supply chain and our most frequent audit nonconformance category. Building on our learnings from fiscal 2024 and as part of our commitment to assess how we can source more responsibly, Cisco continued to explore how it could proactively reduce its potential contribution to excessive working hours at outsourced manufacturing facilities. During fiscal 2025, we set up an internal Working Hours Working Group, a team comprised of regional leaders responsible for managing Cisco’s outsourced manufacturing operations. This group aims to collaborate more closely with manufacturing partners to identify effective mechanisms to help prevent excessive working hours, which may involve reviewing actions that Cisco could take that might affect working hours.

Learn more about our previous efforts on working hours.

Protecting Workers' Health and Safety

Audits in line with our Supplier Code of Conduct help identify and mitigate health and safety risks to workers in supplier facilities. We also recognize the important role that workers themselves play in identifying and addressing risks that they may encounter at work. Facilitating dialogues between supply chain workers and their managers is one way Cisco builds site-level capabilities to improve worker health and well-being.

Since fiscal 2022, Cisco has partnered with the nonprofit Social Accountability International (SAI) to implement its TenSquared program. TenSquared runs for 100 days and brings together supply chain workers and managers to collaboratively identify and address challenges in occupational health and safety. In fiscal 2025, four supplier sites participated in TenSquared with the goal of reducing workplace risks. Since fiscal 2022, a total of 14 Cisco supplier sites have participated in TenSquared and engaged 5,983 workers to participate in the problem-solving process, resulting in longer-lasting solutions.

Read more about our experience deploying TenSquared in our supply chain and how we involve workers to address health and safety risks.

Advancing Efforts on Living Wage and a Decent Standard of Living

Understanding the application of living wage to our own operations and supply chains is an important part of Cisco’s long-standing commitment to uphold and respect human rights for all people. Cisco continues to advance our living wage strategy for our own operations and supply chains through an internal cross-functional working group. To this end, we have strengthened our efforts by assessing external methodologies and developing internal procedures. Cisco also continues to engage in industry efforts, such as the RBA Living Wage Taskforce, and provide corporate sponsorship to the Anker Research Institute. Cisco is committed to internally implementing processes for analyzing living wage and its applications to our business as well as externally promoting harmonization as this field continues to develop.

Facilitating Access to Remedy

One aspect of protecting worker well-being is giving them ways to report and seek remedy for issues that are not being properly addressed by their employers. Cisco’s EthicsLine is available to all supply chain workers and can be accessed by workers in geographies where our suppliers operate. It is available in a total of 27 languages, including Thai, Tagalog, and Vietnamese.

When a worker or other stakeholders report a potential violation of our human rights-related supplier policies, Cisco works to take actions to assess and mitigate impacts aligned with our existing processes. We investigate complaints further to assess the validity of allegations, engage with the grievance reporter to obtain more information that will help in further investigation, and we work to maintain the reporter’s confidentiality to prevent potential retaliatory behavior from employers or other actors. We aim to make a fair assessment of the human rights impact, apply leverage where we can apply the 'cause, contribute, directly linked' framework and, where relevant, engage third parties to join efforts to address the issue. If human rights impacts have occurred, we implement corrective actions that aim to stop the harm of workers and prevent future harm. When possible, we work to provide access to remedy.

During fiscal 2025, we received eight reports through the Cisco EthicsLine, internal communication mechanisms, and external notifications submitted via email from non-governmental organizations (NGOs). We took steps to assess the scale, scope, and remediability of the concerns, and are working with relevant teams, including the RBA, to further investigate, address, and meet workers’ needs. One hundred percent of these cases are closed or under investigation.

Strengthening Suppliers’ Grievance Mechanisms

In addition to our own grievance mechanism, Cisco EthicsLine, we believe workers should also have access to robust and effective grievance mechanisms where they work. The availability of effective facility-level grievance mechanisms can help detect issues early on — before they escalate — and promote swift, localized resolution that fosters trust and accountability in the workplace.

In fiscal 2025, we launched a worker voice project with five manufacturing partner sites across Asia, Europe, and North America to assess the effectiveness of their site grievance mechanisms against the UNGP 31 criteria. The project setup phase was completed in fiscal 2025, with remaining phases scheduled for fiscal 2026, and is being delivered in collaboration with a third-party human rights consultancy. The goal is for manufacturing partners to evaluate workers’ awareness of, and trust in, site grievance mechanisms, as both factors significantly influence usage.

The project aims to encourage and elevate workers’ voices. At each site, workers share their perspectives about the mechanisms available to them through an anonymous survey and confidential focus groups conducted by the third-party consultant. This mixed-methods approach to research intends to not only uncover numerical trends and patterns, but also to further explore workers’ perceptions and different experiences. After data collection, the plan is for the consultant to analyze quantitative and qualitative results using the UNGP 31 framework and develop data-driven, site-focused recommendations on topics that can include mechanism accessibility, legitimacy, and process transparency. The final project phase aims to see partners implement these recommendations, followed by an endline survey to evaluate project impact. At project closure, we plan to review the effectiveness of the overall project to draw out key learnings and to inform our future strategy.

Meaningful Stakeholder Engagement

We are committed to meaningfully engaging with supply chain stakeholders to support our understanding of, and response to, the interests and concerns of potentially affected parties where our supply chain operates. Proactive engagement can help us identify and mitigate risks, drive continuous improvement, and build trust across our supply chain. Aligned with the UNGPs, we developed guiding principles to inform our engagements with stakeholders to ensure we abide by principles of transparency, focus, respect, and inclusion in our interactions.

A key pillar of our strategy relates to worker and rightsholder proxy engagement, which includes the following fiscal 2025 initiatives:

• SAI Ten Squared Program: This program aims to foster worker-management collaboration to proactively identify and address Occupational Health and Safety risks onsite. For example, we expanded to multiple sites in Vietnam to unite workers and managers to collaborate.
• Worker Engagement in CAPs: Drawing upon the TenSquared worker-management collaboration method, we are requiring selected factories to adopt a similar approach to remedy RBA audit findings related to personal protective equipment, chemical management, and infrastructure for workers with disabilities. Factories set up a team with workers and management representatives to jointly identify root causes, assess potential risks, and develop CAPs. Learn more about our CAPs.
• Grievance Channels: We maintain our grievance mechanism, the Cisco EthicsLine, and also leverage RBA’s grievance mechanisms to ensure workers and rightsholder proxies can access additional channels to report concerns.
• Worker Voice Program: In partnership with a human rights consultancy, we launched a program with our manufacturing partners to assess the effectiveness of their grievance mechanisms against the UNGP 31 framework by directly engaging workers through surveys and focus groups.
• Engagement with Migrant Worker Shelters: In fiscal 2025, we met with two migrant worker shelters in Taiwan to gain local insights into contextual challenges and systemic risks faced by migrant workers in this region. The insights from these engagements are informing our forced labor risk assessment and prevention strategies regarding migrant workers in Taiwan. We also shared our learnings with peers to help drive industry solutions at scale.
• Dialogue with Trade Union: We engaged with trade union representatives at one of our manufacturing partner sites in Vietnam to learn about how they interact with workers. We intend to maintain a regular dialogue with the union across years to stay informed on potential worker concerns and emerging issues.
• Chemical Management Training: We supported a training on chemical management in Vietnam, led by the Clean Electronics Production Network, targeting workers and management at a supplier site. The training aimed to foster capability building and risk prevention related to harmful chemical exposure. By providing similar content to both workers and management, the training provided them with a common foundation from which they can address concerns.

Beyond direct worker and proxy engagement, Cisco actively collaborates with a diverse array of stakeholders to inform our human rights due diligence programs and drive industry standards and collective action. We also plan to collectively explore industry opportunities for rightsholder proxy engagement models that are sustainable and can reduce stakeholder engagement fatigue.

Sourcing Minerals Ethically

Mining involves risks on many fronts, including mine worker health and safety, forced labor and child labor, environmental degradation, and influence on regional conflicts. Cisco has put a robust due diligence process in place to responsibly source minerals in our products, including tantalum, tin, tungsten, gold (3TG), cobalt, lithium, nickel, aluminum, copper, graphite, and other minerals critical to Cisco. Our goal is to source minerals consistent with our values around human rights, business ethics, labor, health and safety practices, and environmental responsibility. This approach includes sourcing responsibly from conflict-affected and high-risk areas and artisanal and small-scale mines (ASM).

This commitment, aligned to the UNGPs, is reflected in our Responsible Minerals Policy. This alignment to international standards means that human rights due diligence is embedded throughout our sourcing processes — including supplier risk assessments, engagement with the RMI Grievance Mechanism, and supplier requirements to source from smelters and refiners that comply with our Responsible Minerals Policy. For more detail on our due diligence activities and how they align with the OECD Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Supply Chains of Minerals from Conflict-Affected and High-Risk Areas, see our calendar year 2024 Conflict Minerals Report, published in May 2025.² Our Smelter or Refiner (SOR) List provides information on the 3TG smelters and refiners reported to be in our supply chain.

Identifying and Addressing Minerals Risks

Cisco does not buy raw minerals directly from SORs. Because of the lack of a direct relationship between Cisco and the SORs, we collaborate closely with our suppliers to conduct responsible sourcing due diligence. By conducting robust due diligence on a range of minerals critical to Cisco products, we can identify and address a wider range of human rights and environmental risks. These efforts also strengthen the resilience of our supply chain and support engagement with upstream actors to drive improvements in mining communities.

We use a variety of channels to flag potential risks within our supply chain, including reviewing Minerals Reporting Template (MRT) submissions from suppliers, monitoring news and NGO reports, and conducting our own research and due diligence. In addition, we regularly engage with the RMI Grievance Mechanism to identify and address grievances related to mining in our supply chain. By leveraging these multiple sources of information, we can proactively monitor issues and work toward responsible sourcing.

In fiscal 2025, we enhanced our approach to managing minerals-related risks by partnering even more closely with the supplier management organization. Together, we updated training for supplier relationship managers on their role in supplier engagement and in following through on risk mitigation actions, particularly when SORs of concern are reported to Cisco. We also expanded training resources and guidance for our suppliers, supporting them in meeting responsible sourcing requirements and strengthening their own due diligence processes. Lastly, we introduced an improved escalation and reporting process to expedite appropriate leadership oversight. As a result of these initiatives, we have seen significant improvements in how quickly risks are identified and addressed, leading to faster resolution of minerals sourcing issues across our supply chain.

Collaborating Across the Industry to Drive Responsible Sourcing

We believe that sourcing minerals responsibly is possible through cross-industry collaboration, innovation, and action. Cisco actively partners with peers, industry groups, and multistakeholder initiatives to drive collective progress, strengthen our due diligence practices, and promote responsible mining.

As a member of the RMI, Cisco works alongside other companies to improve transparency and accountability in mineral supply chains. In fiscal 2025, we participated in RMI working groups to expand smelter and refiner participation in the Responsible Minerals Assurance Process (RMAP), identify processors for emerging minerals and materials, and share best practices for due diligence and risk mitigation. We also contributed to the RMI Audit Fund, which helps lower barriers for SORs to complete the audits for RMAP recognition.

In collaboration with RMI and other industry peers, we supported the development of training resources to help suppliers prepare for evolving regulations and expectations and adopt tools like the MRTs to improve the quality of supplier disclosures.

Beyond RMI, Cisco remains an active partner in multistakeholder initiatives to improve conditions and promote responsible practices in regions where mining takes place. As a member of the Public-Private Alliance for Responsible Minerals Trade (PPA) and the European Partnership for Responsible Minerals (EPRM), we support projects that improve conditions in ASM communities and encourage responsible production and trade. Additionally, we remain engaged in the Initiative for Responsible Mining Assurance (IRMA), where we share downstream insights to promote transparency, accountability, and local stakeholder inclusion, and work to increase the number of mines audited under third-party standards.

1 RBA severity definitions can be found in the RBA VAP Standard document.

2 Conflict minerals are defined by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission in Section 1502 of the Dodd-Frank Act as cassiterite, columbite-tantalite, gold, wolframite, or their derivatives, or any other minerals or their derivatives determined by the Secretary of State to be financing conflict in the Covered Countries, which include the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) or an adjoining country.