The food and beverage industry is an at-risk sector. Forced labor occurs both in the production of raw materials and during the food processing stages of food and beverage companies’ supply chains. Food commodities are produced by agricultural workers who often come from vulnerable groups such as women, international migrants, and internal migrants with little education. Weak labor laws and law enforcement in the sector, together with isolated workplaces where housing tends to be provided by the employer, aggravate the typically poor working conditions and can leave workers vulnerable and dependent on their employer.
Companies that are included in this benchmark can use it as a tool for internal and external engagement with relevant stakeholders to drive improvements in their operations. All companies—including any company in the food and beverage sector—can use the findings and recommendations to identify good practices and assess areas where they may need to pay greater attention to forced labor risks.
For many years the dirty secret of the steadily growing Bangladeshi garment industry has been its underpaid workers, treated as disposable objects. The lowest paid garment workers anywhere in the world, hundreds of them have died in preventable fact...Read More
Report on migrant garment workers in Japan’s state-supported Technical Internship Training Program (TITP) are subjected to widespread labour violations including poverty pay, debt bondage, enforced overtime, and inadequate and crowded living and w...Read More
The British Red Cross and UNHCR report, At risk: exploitation and the UK asylum system, finds that people seeking asylum in the UK are at risk of exploitation and have been exploited in the UK. When people are forced to flee, they leave behind m...Read More
This report warns that global progress to end child labour has stalled for the first time in 20 years. The number of children aged 5 to 17 years in hazardous work – defined as work that is likely to harm their health, safety or morals – has rise...Read More
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