Press. voanews.com
Businesses
striving to stamp out slavery from their supply chains should not dismiss
struggling suppliers but train them to improve the lives of workers, and
technology can play a part, leading companies including Apple and Walmart said
on Wednesday.
In recent years
modern-day slavery has increasingly come under the global spotlight, putting
ever greater regulatory and consumer pressure on firms to ensure their supply
chains are free of forced labor, child labor and other forms of slavery.
From cosmetics
and clothes to shrimp and smartphones, supply chains are often complex with
multiple layers across various countries - whether in sourcing the raw
materials or creating the final product - making it hard to identify
exploitation.
As companies
delve deeper into their supply chains to examine workers’ conditions, they
should not punish suppliers who violate human rights but help them raise
standards and work more efficiently, said Paula Pyers of U.S. tech giant Apple.
“We are loathe
to terminate a business relationship in cases of violations,” Pyers, Apple’s
head of supplier responsibility, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation’s annual
Trust Conference, which focuses on slavery and women’s empowerment.
“We want to
teach and train suppliers to make them better,” said Pyers, adding that Apple
has helped more than 11.5 million workers to learn their rights, and returned
at least $28 million to 35,000 employees forced to pay fees to obtain their
jobs.
Turning to tech
About 25 million
people globally were estimated to be trapped in forced labor in 2016, according
to the International Labor Organization (ILO) and rights group Walk Free
Foundation.
With consumers
increasingly conscious of slave labor and willing to pay more for ethically sourced
goods, big brands should lead by example to inspire their suppliers to get into
line, and also to boost profits, said Jan Saumweber of Walmart.
“Responsible
sourcing is key towards our goal of being the most trusted retailer,” said
Saumweber, senior vice president of responsible sourcing at Walmart, the
world’s largest retailer.
She said Walmart
has turned to technology to improve workers’ rights worldwide - from hotlines
to a smartphone app in the style of TripAdvisor that allows Burmese migrants working
in Thailand’s fishing industry to review their employers.
Speaking on a
panel about best business practices to tackle modern slavery, several experts
said cleaning up supply chains would only be sustainable if this resulted in
greater profits.
“Investors can
direct trillions of dollars to companies with strong human rights policies and
clean supply chains,” said Jean Baderschneider, head of Global Fund to End
Slavery, a public-private partnership seeking $1.5 billion to combat the crime.
“But it can’t be a case of charity or philanthropy – they need to see better
returns through having clean supply chains.”
But firms’
efforts to tackle slavery, from codes of conducts to audits, are often lip
service and deflect attention from a need for tougher measures, said Bobby
Banerjee, professor of management at the University of London’s Cass Business
School.
“The problem
with CSR (corporate social responsibility) is that there is too much C, and not
enough S or R,” he said. "Forced labor is not an aberration, but a viable
management practice ... an outcome of the economic system we live in."