Combatting Modern Slavery. Genevieve LeBaron

Combatting Modern Slavery - Genevieve LeBaron


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conditions worldwide is the enforcement industry. As mentioned, as part of the broader shift towards the privatization of supply chain governance, industry actors and NGOs have taken on roles as ‘monitors’ and ‘enforcers’ of labour standards in supply chains. But while private supply chain monitoring tools and programmes are highly profitable for accounting firms, NGOs and other industry actors involved in selling them, these seldom lead to concrete improvements for workers. Retail and brand companies leverage highly strategic control over the design and implementation of auditing programmes, including over new ‘beyond audit’ initiatives. As such, the ability of these programmes to detect and report exploitation and spur corrective action is limited. In the words of one UK audit firm employee, the majority of supply chain monitoring programmes ‘are not trying to find things out, they’re trying to prove that something is not there’.62

      As I will argue in Chapter 5, the enforcement industry is helping to conceal rather than solve the most urgent labour issues in supply chains. Taken as a whole, it is misrepresenting the nature of labour conditions and practices, not only doing little to help workers, but actively misleading consumers and policymakers about their plight. The enforcement industry is helping corporations to legitimize and grow their businesses, in part by generating media- and consumer-friendly metrics and reports that are helping to stave off pressure from civil society groups and reassure investors. But it is doing little to solve the urgent problem of labour exploitation in supply chains.

      Corporate Fairytales vs. Worker Power

      What should we make of the vast range of CSR initiatives to improve labour standards, and the compelling stories that companies tell us about these? In the conclusion of the book, I argue that we should understand corporate accounts of industry-led labour governance initiatives as fairytales. They are detailed, happy and compelling stories about magical mechanisms and events in faraway lands. But they are very unlikely to be true. And they are equally unlikely to become true in the future.

      The longer that it takes for us to accept that, in spite of the undoubtedly good intentions of those involved in audit programmes, social benchmarks, ethical certification schemes and CSR programmes championed in corporate reports and company modern slavery statements are structurally flawed, the longer it will take to reclaim the regulatory space, power and tools that are necessary to promote credible and effective labour governance. The reality is that these corporate-led governance programmes are working just as they are intended: to improve corporate reputations, and to give us the impression that the problem of labour abuse in supply chains is slowly disappearing, so we don’t fight for alternatives that would challenge the status quo of highly profitable business models that rely on labour exploitation.

      Ultimately, as I argue in this book, labour exploitation cannot be eradicated by corporate fairytales. Since the start of this century, CSR has yielded few concrete improvements in terms of labour standards. As a growing body of evidence suggests, across several social and labour issue areas, there are serious gaps between CSR promises and actual outcomes. These gaps will only continue to grow as corporations continue to monopolize and seek to wrench ever more profit from their supply chains. CSR has failed.


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