Global Economy and Forced Labor

• Forced labor is defined as involuntary work performed under the threat of penalty.

Global Economy and Forced Labor

• Economic shifts in the last 30 years have led to increased inequality and a vulnerable workforce, contributing to forced labor.
• Business demand for forced labor has grown with the normalization of outsourcing.
• Complex, global supply chains allow companies to distance themselves from labor practice liabilities while seeking cheaper production.
• Forced labor often occurs on the fringes of supply chains.
• Vulnerable populations include women, girls, migrant workers, ethnic minorities, indigenous people, and the poor.

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)

• Companies address forced labor concerns through CSR initiatives, such as codes of conduct for suppliers forbidding forced labor.
• Private auditing systems used to enforce these codes of conduct can be ineffective because of the following:
  • Financial conflicts of interest between those commissioning and performing the audits.
  • Audits being viewed as a formality rather than an investigation.
  • Workplaces concealing forced labor during audits.
  • Failure to focus on the workers most prone to forced labor.
  • Mismatch between audit locations and where forced labor is likely to occur.
  • Audits primarily focus on tier 1 factories (final assembly), while forced labor is more prevalent in sub-tiers like mineral extraction.

Role of Governments

• Governments contribute to forced labor through immigration and labor laws.
• Deregulation of labor and changes in immigration law over the last 30 years have influenced the prevalence of forced labor.
• While many governments address modern slavery, their policies may not support workers' rights organizations.
• Decline in government labor inspections has reduced enforcement of labor laws.
• Global supply chains crossing national jurisdictions complicate labor standard governance.
• A proposed binding global convention on labor standards aims to hold companies responsible for labor standards throughout their supply chains.

Worker Empowerment

• CSR and audit programs often do not involve workers.
• Supply chain governance should empower and involve workers.
• Workers are leading efforts to govern supply chains and enforce human rights across the workforce, addressing both modern slavery and general exploitation.
• The Coalition of Immokalee Workers in Florida involves workers in designing and enforcing their own systems.
• Workers are best positioned to identify bad practices and the root causes of forced labor.
• Tackling forced labor requires giving voice to workers and addressing exploitation within the broader sector.
• Extreme forms of exploitation can lead to modern slavery, but less extreme forms are still highly exploitative, necessitating a raising of the floor across the board.