Companies are increasingly adopting policies and programs to mitigate the risk of forced labor and human trafficking in their supply chains. Yet little is known about which companies are leading the way in best human rights policy and practice, and where more efforts are needed.
Later this year, KnowTheChain will publish sector-level benchmarking reports comparing these corporate policies and practices. We are doing this with the belief that leaders should be recognized, laggards should be incentivized to improve, and all companies should have insights into how their peers are addressing these challenges so they can strive to do better.
Today, we are pleased to release our Transparency Snapshot Report. The report features initial findings from a pilot methodology we developed to inform our benchmarking efforts moving forward.
Twenty companies were evaluated in three sectors: apparel & footwear, food & beverage, and Information and Communication Technology (ICT). Early findings include:
– 17 out of 20 companies evaluated do address human trafficking and forced labor in their supply chains through a formal policy, indicating that the issue is at least on their radar
– 5 out of 20 companies make policies and standards available to vulnerable parties including workers
– 3 out of 20 companies document interviews with subcontracted personnel
Many of these initial findings suggest that there is an opportunity for significant improvements on worker communication.