Disuss about the Burning Issue Of Modern Slavery In The International Business Organizations.
This essay aims to discuss the burning issue of modern slavery in the international business organizations (Machida 2017). The idea of slavery has a historical connotation which affect the reputation of the firms to both the stakeholders and more precisely to the customers. Modern slavery is associated with some of the complicated issues faced by the business leaders. It is an extreme form of inequality which exists in the competing matrix of political, social and economic pressures. Modern slavery includes to crimes of forced labor, sales as well as exploitation of children as labor, human trafficking and debt bondage. Modern day slavery has different features as it is quite different from the past slavery (Martin?Ortega 2017). Modern slavery remains hidden and work secretly leaving it often unnoticeable by the organizational leaders also. This persuasive essay discusses the importance of awareness among the international business organization about any unethical actions associated with slavery take place in their supply chain. It justifies the necessity of immediate response to such issues by the global leaders in which the corporate social responsibilities may contribute. This essay has opposed the fact that the international companies are unable to limit this social curse from spreading out.
The modern organizations either directly or indirectly fueling modern slavery but they need to contribute not only to limit it but to abolish slavery from the society.
According to the data published by International Labor Organization modern slavery has become a global business which generates more than $150 billion as the annual profits of the companies (Kotiswaran 2017). These profits are the result of extreme exploitation of the human forces of the organizations, forced labors that leads to victimization of the millions of men children and women around the globe. This issue of slavery has been abolished over 200 years by William Wilberforce but currently more than 29 million people are estimated to be enslaved throughout the world. The geopolitical disruption originated by war has compounded the issue of slavery of this social ill. These reason have increased the number of refugees worldwide and has made these people the prime target of slavery (Kempadoo 2017). In his aspect the issue of financial condition of the developing countries can be discussed. It is an unfortunate to thin that the slavery has been abolished for more than two centuries but astonishingly, the cost of slaves or labor have reduced now. This cost is lower than it has been for three centuries. These chilling thought points to the hidden factors that contribute flourishment of the modern slavery system. It is the reality that can pose a huge risk to the modern day business.
Slavery in the organizations manly be found in the supply chain of the companies. The corporate supply chain therefore, conflicts with the ideology of running a responsible business. This is because the responsible business is based on the ethical and moral values like justice, fairness, equality, respect, integrity, dignity and responsibility for maintaining a fair business (Nolan and Bott 2018). The modern slaves are owned by their employers who control them both physically and financially (New 2015). These slaves are controlled through various means which includes their huge recruitment debts which these slaves can never pay back. These people are threatened to be harmed if try to leave the companies. Unlike the slave trade much practiced on the past, these slaves also move from one place to another, one country to another country for serving their employers. This practice is known as human trafficking and these victims are motivated by the ideas that they will have a much better lives than what situation they are in now (Crane 2013). However, these people are completely deceiving as the reality is cruelly different. In this aspect with men and women, the children suffer the most. As the data reveals, the children are the first priority for the employers as the companies when recruit them have minimum expenditure.
As mentioned before, the business play important role in fueling the practice of slavery as well as human trafficking. Despite the fact that slavery is illegal in the world, evidence reveal that this take place in more or less all the developing countries. In certain sectors, this practice has important presence which can be vulnerable for even developed economies (Armstrong and Matters 2017). This risk can affect most of valuable and profitable industries for example, steel, automobile, manufacturing, construction, electronics, information technology, agriculture, seafood, garments and textiles, mining minerals, shipping and other transportation industries around the globe.
The global business has proved to negotiate with the practice of modern slavery. These business take the advantage of the lack of awareness of the country’s government and regulation regarding the issues of slavery and force labor (Segrave and Milivojevic 2017). The multilayer and interconnected supply chains have become the hallmarks of the 21st century business practices. These are the chief driving forces to maintain the demand of slavery in business. Despite the fact that it is impossible for the business leaders to solve all associated problems as they have less power to control the social and political system of a country that supports slavery in the business. On the contrary The United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights state that the business must take responsibilities to respect and secure the human rights of their workers (Un.org 2018). These policies also mandate the government of the countries as well as states to protect human rights by taking measures to protect laws and rights to serve its citizens. Therefore, the business leaders can get sufficient support from the governments if they perform the responsibility to secure the lives of their employees. The company’s corporate social responsibilities are the key factors through which they can eradicate such a global problem. They need to take as well as continue to take acceptable initiatives to ensure that modern slavery do not take place in any section of their business as well as their supply chain. They must act ethically with all integrity as well as transparency in all types of business dealings.
As the first initiative the business can and should commit to utilize whatever power they have in disposal aiming to end such issue associate with the trade. However, this will not be everything for the companies working with cross-cultural labors in their industries but will help in ensuring the transparency in their supply chains (Emberson and Trautrims 2017). Proper documentation of the agreements with the labors with their employers will help the business leaders to identify then reduce the risk of employee exploitation. The global companies are powerful as their business are directly linked with the global economy and as economy of the country or the financial state of the people is the chief drivers of crisis for which they become slaves, the companies can have the power to change the status of these enslaved people. they need to have social and humanitarian obligation to prevent this evil practice of slavery along with human trafficking. These companies must work together to eradicate this modern day scourge (LeBaron and Rühmkorf 2017). The global business must treat slavery as crime hence upset the reputation and function of the companies. In order to end this modern slavery initiatives, funds need to be raised and channel substantial resources towards high prevalence countries of slavery which will be definitely helping the government to reduce inequality and eventually the crime of slavery.
Globalization has offered a terrible paradox. In one hand it is associated with technological advancement, fueled the issue of inequality and eventually the factors kindling the ethical problem of slavery (Ireland 2017). Globalization has created much wealth for one group of society yet has enslaved of others. Some of the critics and business leaders argue in support of slavery in the social and political systems. They ascribe with the view that slavery is not a result of inequality in the payment systems of the global business organizations but it is the aftereffect of debt bondage, human trafficking, decent based slavery and early marriage.
To these critics, these issues are effect of social and ethical imbalance for which the persons and the government of the country are responsible. For example, the idea of forced labored predominant in the Indian subcontinents is the social issue. These are originated from the result global companies have no liability for abolishing which depend on the social problems of early marriage and child labors (LeBaron and Rühmkorf 2017). Thus is the reasons why the number of forced child labor, bonded labor and decent based slavery are predominant in the business structure. To these critics, globalization has mandated the business to expand over the countries therefore, business of the companies mainly depend on the political, social, legal and economic factors of that countries. As the counties solely depend on the policies of the countries, they do not have any responsibility to help these slaves.
According to this view, people who live in poverty hence get limited scope to get a decent job are more vulnerable to this deceptive cycle of slavery (Anti-Slavery International.org 2018). They are deceived by prospect of better lifestyle which turn to be more exploitative. These people are discriminated on the basis of race and gender then get enslaved. Therefore, these issues are the outcome of weaker law in the society and rife corruption. This is the reason, the business organization do not have liability to limit these issues and they do not have power to change social systems (Gadd and Broad 2018). Hence they are only using and employing the labors available in the market of the country where they are operating.
In support to this view another criticism ca be discussed. These critics believe that current international business environment have made it quite difficult for the automotive manufactures or the garment industry leaders to keep track of the organizational operations and the contributing factors who help the products to ultimately driven off the showroom from the warehouse (Stevenson and Cole 2018). In this case, the instances of the industries can be given which run unethically by employing child labors in their ventures in the developing countries. For example, the garment and textile industries which have origin and headquarters in the developed western countries like the United Kingdom or America, but depend on the labor force of the developing Asian countries cannot directly manage or monitor whom their employers are employing for work. These are the common issue in many companies yet their path from inception to the consumption is tainted. In addition to this, these global companies are highly dependent on the migrant and casual workers working in their different branches (Gold, Trautrims and Trodd 2015). Hence the companies, even if willing to address these issues feel impossible to remove these factors from their operations.
From the above discussion it can be understood that the critics to support the modern slave trade in all over the world has reinforced the view that slave trade is booming day by day because it is extremely profitable for the companies. These slaves in compared to the other employees are cheap therefore, much lucrative. As the data revealed by the UN, the slave traffickers make more than $10,000 per slave which make this trafficking business very profitable hence motivating (Wake 2017). Due to globalization, which has made the flow of international labor, capital and goods easy, has also contributed for improvement if slave trade across the globe.
With the introduction of Modern slavery act in the year 2015, public inspection of the crimes like human trafficking along with modern slavery has increased eventually (Gadd and Broad 2018). Numerous cases published in the western countries which are mostly industry dominated, show the evidence of splaying pivotal role in increasing modern slavery history. Now the demand to put embargo on the products of the companies which use forced labors, slaves or indulge in other unethical business both in their production as well as in their supply chain, has started to change the scenario. The awareness of being exploited by the employers is necessary. According to Milivojevic, Pickering and Segrave (2017), the companies are solely responsible to encourage the traffickers of slave to increase this issues of slavery. These human traffickers are erasing all their evidences so that the companies even if try to monitor get no chance to suspect the supply chain. Moreover, through get evidences of such unethical process in the organizations, the mangers are turning a corporate blind eye on the modern slavery, including in the extended supply chain. Complexity in the labor supply chains has allowed forced labor to flourish (Crane 2013). Complex sub-contracting as well as the supply chains accomplished by the agents often make incomprehensible this involvement.
However, the situation is changing. Whether knowledgeably or not, some of the companies that have a significant presence in developed western countries, believe to remain ethical in all the perspectives of their business. They rely that labors working in slavery for producing the goods these companies sell and have that supply chains can encourage the human traffickers. Employee unrest over the issues of trafficking have led to work slowdowns, product quality problems, consumer boycotts along with product recalls (Wake 2017). Despite the fact this issues do not have direct economic impact on the companies, the media reports informing a company has slaves in the supply chain may result in a huge reputational impairment, damage of the investor confidence as well as massive stock-value loss.
It is in the corporate social responsibilities which mandate the global companies to become more concerned with the slavery in their operations. Based on this idea, the companies have started to investigate their supply chain and functions of their subsidiaries in the foreign region. Companies operating in the national as well as international levels, address this kind of social issues under the concept of Corporate Social Responsibilities which is also known as corporate citizenship (LeBaron and Rühmkorf 2017). It is the economic, ethical and legal expectations place on the companies by the society at particular time (Crane 2013). Supply chain addresses human trafficking from the aspect of the ethical and legal obligations or liabilities of the firms. This is because most of the countries of the worlds have put significant potential criminal penalties as well as civil liabilities to attend the issues of human trafficking and slavery. CSR activities of these global companies are focused to take a genuine approach to the partnership with their suppliers and the regional governments (Gold, Trautrims and Trodd 2015). Rather than focusing on the auditing as well as compliance these companies must world with the suppliers so that ethical approach can be attained in the business. These suppliers will be helping the companies to make it clear that if there is any issue of force labors or slavery engaged in the process. They will identify whether the commercial consideration has been acting as supporting factors in their business.
The fight against modern slavery and child labor have been the prime concerns of the civil society organizations but anti-slavery movements have inspired the global companies and catalyzed their actions to take multi-stakeholders’ initiatives (Machida 2017). Through these initiatives, the modern firms commit to tackle the risks of modern slavery first and do what the customers expect a responsible firm to do. Through CSR initiatives the companies will be able to recognize the anti-poverty strategies which will aim to save the poor employees vulnerable to slavery. This will help in perpetrating to prevent every act of slavery as well as human trafficking.
As the supported have pointed out that the companies do not have responsibilities in limiting the issue of slavery, but the government of the countries are liable to eradicate the number of slavers in their countries so that the companies do not get opportunities to recruit them (Nolan and Bott 2018). Here the fact should be noted that a great number of regulations as well as initiatives have been penned for training awareness for human slavery and implementation clear supply chain needed. Some of these examples include U.S. California Transparency in Supply Chains Act of 2010, U.S. Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000, UK Modern Slavery Act of 2015 and Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act of 2016 (Kotiswaran 2017). However, not every country has this kind of anti-slavery acts to depend on.
As the supply chain of the companies are the core place of such kin of vices, there are some steps which the firms need to follow in minimizing the risk associated with modern slavery. These actions include-
Therefore, it can be concluded that the companies which operate in the cross cultural environment may face issues of unethical functioning by the supply chains. The concept of slavery has a deeper connotation in the lives of the people livening an under developed or developing countries with the burden of poverty constantly pressing them. This issue of slavery also has a great impact on the reputation of the organization where the customers and stakeholders do not want to trade with these companies as slavery is illegal issue. Many of the critics have argued that the issue of slavery is a result of globalization and the companies do not have any liability to eradicate them. It is the government of the country who should take responsibilities to abolish economic inequality in their nations and ultimately limit forced labor or slavery successfully. However, the international business organizations are responsible for powering slavery in their companies hence need to work together to eradicate such a social problem from the human society.
References:
Anti-Slavery International.org (2018). What is modern slavery? – Anti-Slavery International. [online] Anti-Slavery International. Available at: https://www.antislavery.org/slavery-today/modern-slavery/ [Accessed 27 Apr. 2018].
Armstrong, R. and Matters, R.T., 2017. Modern slavery: risks for the UK hospitality industry. Progress in Responsible Tourism, p.67.
Crane, A., 2013. Modern slavery as a management practice: Exploring the conditions and capabilities for human exploitation. Academy of Management Review, 38(1), pp.49-69.
Davidson, J.O.C., 2015. Modern slavery: The margins of freedom. Springer.
Emberson, C.A. and Trautrims, A., 2017. Managers’ perceptions of modern slavery risk in a UK health-care supply network.
Gadd, D. and Broad, R., 2018. Troubling recognitions in British responses to modern slavery. The British Journal of Criminology.
Gold, S., Trautrims, A. and Trodd, Z., 2015. Modern slavery challenges to supply chain management. Supply Chain Management: An International Journal, 20(5), pp.485-494.
Ireland, R., 2017. Rights and Modern Slavery: The Obligations of States and Corporations in Relation to Forced Labour in Global Supply Chains. UCLJLJ, 6, p.100.
Kempadoo, K., 2017. ‘Bound Coolies’ and Other Indentured Workers in the Caribbean: Implications for debates about human trafficking and modern slavery. Anti-Trafficking Review, (9).
Kotiswaran, P. ed., 2017. Revisiting the Law and Governance of Trafficking, Forced Labor and Modern Slavery. Cambridge University Press.
LeBaron, G. and Rühmkorf, A., 2017. Steering CSR through home state regulation: A comparison of the impact of the UK bribery act and modern slavery act on global supply chain governance. Global Policy, 8(S3), pp.15-28.
Machida, S., 2017. Does Globalization Encourage States to Be More Aggressive against” Modern Slavery” Cross-National Analyses. Journal of Political Science, 45.
Martin?Ortega, O., 2017. Human rights risks in global supply chains: Applying the UK Modern Slavery Act to the public sector. Global Policy, 8(4), pp.512-521.
Milivojevic, S., Pickering, S. and Segrave, M., 2017. Sex Trafficking and Modern Slavery: The Absence of Evidence.
New, S.J., 2015. Modern slavery and the supply chain: the limits of corporate social responsibility?. Supply Chain Management: An International Journal, 20(6), pp.697-707.
Nolan, J. and Bott, G., 2018. Global supply chains and human rights: spotlight on forced labour and modern slavery practices. Australian Journal of Human Rights, pp.1-26.
Segrave, M. and Milivojevic, S., 2017. Gendered exploitation in the digital border crossing? An analysis of the human trafficking and information technology nexus. In Gender, Technology and Violence (pp. 28-44). Routledge.
Stevenson, M. and Cole, R., 2018. Modern slavery in supply chains: a secondary data analysis of detection, remediation and disclosure. Supply Chain Management: An International Journal.
Un.org (2018). Universal Declaration of Human Rights. [online] Un.org. Available at: https://www.un.org/en/universal-declaration-human-rights/ [Accessed 27 Apr. 2018].
Wake, N., 2017. Human Trafficking and Modern Day Slavery: When Victims Kill. Criminal Law Review, 9, pp.658-677.
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