The UK Modern Slavery Act 10 years on - progress has been made but much more needs to be done.

It is now 10 years since the UK Modern Slavery Act was introduced by the UK Government under Prime Minister Theresa May. Although drawing on previous legislation from California, at the time, the Act was a significant and unique landmark in the ongoing battle to combat forced labour and trafficking in global supply chains.

The requirements on companies were straight-forward. Any company with operations in the UK with a turnover above £36 million was expected to make an annual modern slavery statement explaining the steps they were taking to ensure that they were not complicit in modern slavery and were taking appropriate measures to address or prevent  it in their direct operations or extended supply chains. Significantly this statement was to be made annually and  had to be signed at executive level. This ensured ongoing efforts to identify and prevent   slavery and meant that these actions were no longer just the responsibility of a sustainability team bolted on to the side of a business, but an integral part of a company’s operations.

The Act had many critics, both from business and external stakeholders, but was welcomed by many as an important first step towards better practice. The annual reporting requirement was included after lobbying by the Ethical Trading Initiative, the British Retail Consortium and leading companies who saw themselves facing unfair competition and  disadvantage in markets where their brand names carried additional reputational risk. They called for the Act to ensure a duty on all companies to address this important issue.

As the companies started to produce their first modern slavery statements, many were a sad disappointment to anti-slavery campaigners. Many identikit statements emerged, offering assurance of “zero tolerance to forced labour and trafficking” but giving very little indication of companies’ efforts to really understand or tackle the issue.

The word slavery is emotive and evocative, for many it immediately conjured up visions of people being incarcerated, or people in chains, of  people being rescued and being survivors. The reality is of course that modern slavery - forced labour and trafficking, seldom looks like that. Modern slavery looks like work - it looks like the work that anyone may be undertaking in any supply chain or business operation anywhere in the world. The chains that bind so many  are nearly always financial. Forced labour is also very often a continuum of experience, an accumulation of smaller exploitations or abuses that may not be viewed as so serious if taken individually but mean a good deal more if constantly drip fed into a working life.  

Gradually companies realised that they needed to stop looking for slaves, and instead  start looking at how the processes and procedures of their operations may make workers vulnerable. For many it was a wake up call to what had been going on for years, hidden in plain sight - normalised to the point where it was unremarkable.

My own organisation IHRB has a particular focus on the challenges faced by migrant workers,  who make up 5% of the global workforce (1 in 20 workers is a migrant worker) but who are three times as likely as other workers to be in a situation of forced labour.

We press hard to address one particular challenge faced by many migrant workers - the payment of recruitment fees, costs and charges to secure employment abroad. Working with others we have, for many years, advocated for a new model based on The Employer Pays Principle which affirms that no worker should pay for a job - the costs of recruitment should be borne not by the worker but by the employer. Over 400 companies now have a public prohibition on this practice in their company policies.

In March, the UK Government released new guidance for companies to help them comply with and report under the UK Modern Slavery Act. I was part of a consultation forum consisting of business, unions and civil society organisations, who, over a period of a few months, helped to shape this new guidance.

We were delighted to see reference to the Employer Pays Principle included in the new guidance as a best practice that companies should follow. Other organisations have campaigned hard across a variety of other issues which leave workers vulnerable to exploitation. There have been many small victories on a long journey with still much to do.

On attending the launch of the new guidance I was however particularly struck by the remarks of the UK Minister for Safeguarding, Jess Philips MP, which displayed a far deeper understanding of the situation still faced by far too many workers, as well as a recognition of the efforts of many companies in this space. This position goes far beyond the original claims of “zero tolerance” from early efforts.

“Let me be clear-modern slavery is still so prevalent that we do expect you to find instances of modern slavery and poor working practices in your operations and supply chains. Despite all we have done and the progress we have made, and the good work that has been undertaken by a number of organisations it can be uncomfortable to publicly disclose any instances of modern slavery. Which is why I want us to work together to change our attitude to these issues. If a Health and Safety Inspector went to review a workplace and found their incident log was empty, this is not something to be praised, it would raise concerns that proper processes were not being followed.We need to stop viewing modern slavery through this lens - turning the tide -  so these disclosures are welcomed and the focus shifts to how these instances have been remedied and prevented from recurring in the future. Our Guidance now explicitly encourages organisations to make these disclosures.”

I agree with Jess Philips. A company that finds an incidence of modern slavery is a company that is then in a position to do something about it. Companies that claim to be slavery-free clearly have no true understanding of the nature of what they are dealing with.

Questions to the Minister also included strong demands from many in the room for increased enforcement activity. There were two parts to this: firstly that all companies required to report under the Act should do so or face sanctions. Secondly, government enforcement bodies tasked with  preventing exploitation in partnership with business,  such as the Gangmaster and Labour Abuse Authority should be properly resourced.  These are both a legitimate concern for business and clearly reflected in the UN Guiding Principles on Business andHuman Rights - that whilst there is a responsibility on business to respect human rights, there is also a responsibility on government to protect human rights. Business need not fear legislation that is consistently and transparently enforced. It is clear that effective enforcement of the law does not just prevent exploitation of workers but also ensures a level playing field for those law-abiding businesses who are trying to do the right thing.

Ten years on from the UK Modern Slavery Act, there is little doubt that progress has been made. But there is so much more to be done. Companies have no excuses for claiming that they don’t know what to do - there are plenty of organisations undertaking great work, like the Ethical Supply Chain Program, to pool collective knowledge and catalyse effective action. Other significant resources are available from Stronger Together, Unseen and Anti-Slavery International along with the UN Organisations  the ILO and IOM. Reporting back on actions taken and progress is a key step in helping all companies to understand, to be inspired by the efforts of their peers and competitors, and to be more effective in ensuring respect for rights, adherence to international standards, and prevention of exploitation in global supply chains.

‍

‍

Neill Wilkins, Head of the Migrant Worker Programme at the Institute for Human Rights and Business

The annual IHRB Global Forum for Responsible Recruitment takes place this year in Bangkok 20-21st May. The event is free to attend online and in person. Registration is essential.

‍