UK businesses face new reporting rules on slavery in supply chains

Big businesses will have to publicly state each year what action they have taken to ensure their supply chains are slavery free, the Home Office has announced.
Fri, 17 Oct 2014 | By Nicola Sullivan 
Big businesses will have to publicly state each year what action they have taken to ensure their supply chains are slavery free, the Home Office has announced.

This measure will be included in the Modern Slavery Bill, currently going through parliament, and will apply to businesses regardless of ‘nature’ and what they supply, whether that is goods or services.

At the same time a report published by The Salvation Army showed that during the second year (2012/13) of a government contract to support adult victims of human trafficking, the number of slavery victims referred to the charity had increased by 62%.

It was also found that in 2013/14 cases of labour exploitation overtook cases of sexual exploitation with 42% of referrals to The Salvation Army having been subjected to labour exploitation, compared to 38% who were subjected to sexual exploitation and 10% to domestic servitude. 

In 2012/13 the figures of sexual exploitation and labour exploitation were 43% and 40% respectively.

In a press statement Karen Bradley, minister for modern slavery and organised crime, said: “The fact that there are more people in slavery today than at any other time in human history is shameful. We all have a responsibility to stamp out this evil trade and this world leading measure calls on business to play their part.”

Klara Skrivankova, Europe programme and advocacy co-ordinator at Anti Slavery International, told Recruiter that “dubious” agents that undercut law-abiding recruitment firms were creating “huge problems”.

She said: “If you think about the UK labour supply chain and any industry that relies heavily on temporary agency and contractors especially for low-skilled work and support staff that’s where the danger is.”

Skrivankova said that “triangular” relationships between workers, agencies and the business means that a worker might not be exploited in the workplace but could be forced to live in “tight” accommodation, give the bulk of their pay to an agency or be forced to work shifts in other places.

Skrivankova said: “ There are businesses that are already striving to do whatever they can to stamp out slavery and they are being undercut by those that don’t.
“Obviously, the longer and the larger the supply chain is the more complex it becomes to monitor, but it is not impossible and certainly there are businesses that are attempting to do that.”

Measures to tackle slavery include introducing relevant conditions into contracts and running workshops to raise awareness among workers and contractors.
The Home Office said a consultation would be held to set the exact threshold for the size of the businesses that have to comply to ensure the system is both ‘fair and robust’. 

Statutory guidance will also be produced setting out the kinds of information that might be disclosed to help companies comply.

A press statement from the Home Office said there are similar transparency requirements in California but they only apply to businesses producing goods for sale.

A spokesperson for the Gangmasters Licensing Authority told Recruiter any move that raises awareness of slavery in supply chains is welcome, but said he wasn’t able to provide further comment at this stage.

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