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.
A report by Human Rights Watch on labor exploitation and trafficking of children in tobacco farms in Kentucky, Virginia, Tennessee, North Carolina. Children on tobacco farms face severe health and safety risks, including accute nicotine poisoning, c...Read More
The data in this report represents signals and cases from January 1, 2017 through December 31, 2017 and is accurate as of July 11, 2018. Cases of trafficking may be ongoing or new information may be revealed to the National Hotline over time. Conseq...Read More
When MSIs first emerged in the 1990s, they appeared to offer a transformative and exciting proposition. For years human rights and advocacy organizations had been investigating and naming-and-shaming companies for their connections to sweatshop labo...Read More
Garment workers, mostly women, earn some of the lowest wages in the world while making clothes for some of the biggest fashion brands. Romania has about 300,000 oficial garment workers, who usually earn a minimum wage of about 230 EUR after tax. Wor...Read More
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