Modern Day Slavery & Your Supply Chain. It Exist & You Should Be Aware.

In any industry, knowing and understanding your supply chain is vital. The steps a company takes in order to fully control their supply chain is long and arduous. Companies do this to ensure that they source their materials ethically and whomever they work with, is supplying those materials responsibly. Around the world, human trafficking and modern day slavery is a real problem, and with the global economy expanding into new markets, the need for labor is rising. The risk for dealing with an entity, that allows this type of problem, is growing. As global consumers become more aware of this ethical issue, companies are making this top of mind to ensure that this is not apart of their operations. Unfortunately, there are a substantial amount of entities that do not follow this business practice or care not to address it. Steve Banker, a contributing writer for Forbes.com writes about modern day slavery and its infiltration within the supply chain. He makes the point that public perception of human trafficking typically revolves around the kidnapping of children and women in the Middle East or the trafficking of women for sex in central Europe. But trafficking does happen within supply chains and it is a growing issue:

“Traffickers can target vulnerable workers anywhere to fill labor shortages everywhere along a supply chain. In the electronics sector, for example, human trafficking may exist in the extractive stages (mining for raw material), in the component manufacturing stage (where separate pieces are produced or combined), and in the production stage (where a good is assembled and packaged in a factory).”

So how are companies focusing their efforts on addressing this problem? Knowing their own supply chain and understanding the work that is being produced from their tier1 level supplier is handled effectively in most cases. The issues lay in sub tiers, where visibility becomes much less and information is not provided about their business practices. To learn more about modern day slavery and your supply chain and how you can be at risk, click here.