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4 - The role of business in the exploitation and rehabilitation of victims of modern slavery
- Edited by Carole Murphy, St Mary's University, Twickenham, London, Runa Lazzarino, University of Oxford and Middlesex University, London
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- Book:
- Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking
- Published by:
- Bristol University Press
- Published online:
- 20 June 2023
- Print publication:
- 06 December 2022, pp 73-92
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Summary
Introduction
Business has a role to play in negating the tolerance of slavery and to take active steps to help survivors of trafficking. The UN Guiding Principles (UNGPs) are the global standard for businesses to respect human rights and create an obligation upon business to implement policies and due diligence processes to identify, prevent and remedy (if possible) negative human rights impacts that they may have caused or contributed to. This includes a duty to prevent human trafficking. Legislation like the UK Modern Slavery Act requires a business to take steps to tackle and proactively report on human trafficking and modern slavery in their organisations and supply chains. Effective due diligence allows companies to identify and assess potential and actual human rights abuses in their operations and services, including their supply chains and business relationships. The EU draft Directive on Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence will require businesses within its scope to develop and implement a mandatory human rights due diligence strategy (European Parliament, 2021). It is argued that while businesses will assess risk before entering key business transactions, very few take responsibility for decent work in their supply chains (BHRRC, 2017).
COVID-19 highlighted that business practices impact on people in supply chains. It has posed unprecedented challenges for business and workers in supply chains, particularly those exposed to forced labour and modern slavery. The shutdown of countless factories during the pandemic increased unemployment rates, putting those most vulnerable at greater risk of exploitation. Perpetrators of modern slavery induce victims to rely on them for basic needs such as food and shelter, and circumstances where income generated would be confiscated (GBCAT, 2020). The chapter outlines contributing factors in the exploitation of workers including the role of the businesses, demand for cheap labour, global inequality and poverty. Business leaders representing both the survivor employment programmes – Bright Future, Holos – and the retail organisations who collaborated with them – the Co-op, Dixons Carphone and Brightwork Recruitment – were interviewed for this chapter, discussing their roles in the rehabilitation of survivors and identifying barriers in this process.
The role of business in the exploitation of victims
The journey from legitimate employment to exploitation can be linked to business in multiple ways.
eight - Modern slavery and transparency in supply chains: the role of business
- Edited by Gary Craig, Alex Balch, University of Liverpool, Hannah Lewis, The University of Sheffield, Louise Waite, University of Leeds
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- Book:
- The Modern Slavery Agenda
- Published by:
- Bristol University Press
- Published online:
- 20 April 2022
- Print publication:
- 17 January 2019, pp 187-218
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Summary
Introduction
This chapter, having briefly restated what is meant by the term ‘modern slavery’, will explore how business is implicated by it, and the salient requirements of the UK Modern Slavery Act (MSA) transparency in supply chain provision, in the context of growing mandatory reporting requirements for business to report transparently on their supply chain impacts. We also examine how business has responded to the MSA. It concludes with some practical steps that business can take to address the risk of modern slavery in its supply chains.
The liberalisation of trade, the growth in global value chains (GVCs) and the proliferation of multinational corporations (MNCs) and their impact on the environment and human rights have recently led to a spotlight being shone on ethical trade and the protection of human rights. ‘Modern slavery’ has become a recognised global phenomenon, giving rise to questions on how the state and business should be tackling these issues.
Although ethical trade is still relatively in its infancy, corporate social responsibility (CSR) professionals, pressure groups, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and international bodies such as the International Labour Organisation (ILO) have spent years trying to manage the impacts of large-scale global business. While it may seem relatively straightforward to ensure certain factors such as decent work, decent wages and regular employment contracts throughout the supply chain, this has increasingly become no easy feat. Global business has expanded tenfold and MNCs are faced with assessing the benefits of supporting developing economies through supply contracts and ensuring that they are producing a responsibly sourced product. As business has expanded, so have the mechanisms to conceal forced labour. The GVC theoretical framework has been deployed over the last two decades to analyse the drivers of labour exploitation in the global economy and the governance gaps that facilitate it. Larger organisations have increasingly complex and ever-changing supply chains, making it almost impossible to stay on top of risk. Another significant contribution to the exploitation by business of labour has been the significant growth by MNCs in outsourcing the number of workers employed directly. This outsourcing of the functions and responsibilities associated with employment increases the opportunity to exploit labour as it significantly dismantles employers’ obligations to workers. (Phillips 2016).