Expanding worker voice and labor rights in global supply chains: Standard setting, verification, and traceability

Abstract

Migrant workers are the backbone of many global supply chains, performing some of the hardest tasks with few protections, low pay, and at high risk for abuse, including being lured into debt bondage (International Business Leaders Forum [IBLF], 2010). Migrant workers number about 169 million, with about 58 million in ‘irregular migration’ (i.e. not authorized to work; International Labour Organization [ILO], 2021: 2–3). A seminal study revealing many female migrants in forced labor in the Malaysia electronic industry caused a global rethink of auditing (Verité, 2014). Reports by the ILO and other revealed extensive forced labor and trafficking abuses in the global fishing industry, spurring efforts to correct (FishWise, 2017; ILO, 2015). Broadly speaking, the ILO addresses migrant worker rights through its Decent Work Agenda, Conventions and Recommendations, and in alignment with the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda and the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs). New opportunities exist, however, for measurably improving labor rights protections in global supply chains through improved standard setting and enhanced verification of conformance to the standards as well as product traceability. While the ILO has had some limited engagement in this realm, it may find greater success with sustained