Question 3 – how can we promote business accountability for labour standards in supply chains?
The ILO estimates that the annual profits from ‘forced labour’ amount to $150 billion per year. Much of this exploitation takes place in corporate supply chains.
Of course, although while numbers in this space must be treated with caution, we do know that forced labour is often highly profitable for those who perpetrate it. It allows businesses or small-scale employers to illicitly minimise their labour inputs – usually the largest component of their operating costs – and hence to minimise the cost of producing goods and services. This, in turn, maximises profits. It also enables otherwise uneconomic businesses to remain financially viable, albeit at a massive social cost.
