Supply Chain Slavery Is Quickly Becoming An Issue That All Companies Need To Tackle

Is human trafficking and modern day slavery becoming an increasing issue within supply chains? We are seeing it more in the media that larger corporations, that typically have vastly larger supply chains, are finding issues with human trafficking and slavery. Companies handle compliance related issues, such as conflict minerals and corruption, within their supply chains, and have to be aware if any issue arises. Those same supply chains that have the potential risk also carry with it the possibility of slavery and human trafficking.

With increased involvement of consumers, activist groups and governments, awareness has played a large role in identifying, which organizations may have, slavery involved within their supply chains. In an article written by Ben Dipierto from the Wall Street Journal, he writes about companies and businesses being forced to take care of this issue:

“As consumers, activist groups and governments increase pressure on companies to gain greater awareness of what is happening in their supply lines, businesses are being forced to review and evaluate their policies and relationships, and to devise programs to help train suppliers on how to properly hire and treat workers.”

Larger companies have the ability to undertake this task with its supply chain, due to larger amounts of resources at its disposal. What about smaller companies that have limited amounts of resources? The urge to grow into larger and expanding global markets requires smaller companies to do the same when abiding by global regulation on supply chain slavery. Ben Dipierto writes that looking at NGO’s and other non-profits to help assist smaller companies to look deeper in their supply chains is an option when looking for resources. To learn more about supply chain transparency and the growing issue of slavery within supply chains, view this video on demand. Click here to watch now.