Modern Day Slavery: The Repercussions of Globalized Supply Chains

 Wednesday, June 15, 2016 - 2:15pm

NEWSROOM: Source Intelligence®

CONTENT: Article

Globalized business practices have opened opportunities for unprecedented economic growth. This globalization has, however, increased the complexity of supply chains for multi-national companies. Supply chain complexity has increased the risk of modern day slavery happening somewhere in the supply chains of global companies.

Companies are constantly trying to cut the cost of their production processes and are naturally moving towards countries and areas of the world with less expensive suppliers. The movement of production to less expensive suppliers increases the demand for labor in these developing areas. Developing countries typically do not have the resources to provide adequate oversight of labor standards. The increase in demand for labor in developing countries, and a lack of labor oversight in developing countries drastically increases the chance of forced labor happening somewhere in the supply chain.

The global effort to mitigate the risk of modern day slavery in supply chains has been gaining traction. Recently, India drafted their first ever anti-human trafficking law. The UK Modern Day Slavery Act also went into effect in 2015, which makes all companies doing business in the UK have to report on their efforts to mitigate slavery in their supply chain. The global anti-slavery movement is continuing to grow and new regions of the world are drafting anti-slavery bills.