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‘Revealed: Asian slave labour producing prawns for supermarkets in US, UK’, ran one of the many headlines in the last year that linked the UK to violations of labour rights in global supply chains. Others highlighted child labour in our chocolate, trafficking in our tea and slavery in cotton. There are more cases—of course—these just attract headlines because they involve consumer brands.
The stream of exposés is difficult to square with corporate sustainability reports, which tend to focus on environmental metrics and highlight success stories. In sectors with systemic labour issues, social compliance programmes and corporate social responsibility (CSR) projects are currently akin to pruning a field of weeds, while leaving the roots undisturbed.
