Under the regime of private company or multi-stakeholder voluntary codes of conduct and industry social auditing, workers have absorbed low wages and unsafe and abusive conditions; labour leaders and union members have become the targets of both government and factory harassment and violence; and trade union power has waned. Nowhere have these private systems of codes and audits so clearly failed to protect workers as in Bangladesh’s apparel industry. However, international labour groups and Bangladeshi unions have succeeded in mounting a challenge to voluntarism in the global economy, persuading more than 180 companies to make a binding and enforceable commitment to workers’ safety in an agreement with 12 unions.
The extent to which this Bangladesh Accord will be able to influence the entrenched global regime of voluntary codes and weak trade unions remains an open question. But if the Accord can make progress in Bangladesh, it can help to inspire similar efforts in other countries and in other industries.
Based on the theme of partnership, this year’s report examines the ways in which governments and other stakeholders have collaborated to advance anti-trafficking priorities and goals, and emphasizes the importance of including a breadth of groups ...Read More
This report studied the impact of the Freewheel by Ride For Freedom programme on survivors of modern slavery in Barking & Dagenham, East London. The programme provides the survivors with a bicycle, accessories and cycling proficiency and road aw...Read More
This report presents the findings from the Global Business of Forced Labour project. The project investigates the business models of forced labour in global agricultural supply chains. Over two years the project systematically mapped the business ...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
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