![\"Fishermen\"](\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/ccd42e5fb2bde01f996f523efa3af59883de518b\/0_119_4096_2457\/master\/4096.jpg?width=300&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=e0d75364379799ac835d0c75149c06aa\")
<\/a>I<\/strong>t\u2019s hard to think of an issue that you would less like your company to be associated with than modern slavery. Yet last November Nestl\u00e9, the world\u2019s largest foodmaker and one of the most recognisable household brands, went public with the news it had found forced labour in its supply chains<\/a> in Thailand and that its customers were buying products tainted with the blood and sweat of poor, unpaid and abused migrant workers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n By independently disclosing that Nestl\u00e9 customers had unwittingly bought products contaminated by the very worst labour abuses, the company said it was moving into a new era of self-policing of its own supply chains. A year-long investigation by the company confirmed media reports<\/a> that the seafood industry in Thailand is riddled with forced labour and human trafficking and that slave labour was involved in the production of its Fancy Feast catfood brand. Nestl\u00e9 also made sure to make it clear that no other company sourcing seafood from Thailand<\/a>, the world\u2019s third-largest seafood exporter, could have avoided being exposed to the same risks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAs we\u2019ve said consistently, forced labour and human rights abuses have no place in our supply chain,\u201d said Magdi Batato, Nestl\u00e9\u2019s executive vice-president in charge of operations, in a written statement. \u201cNestl\u00e9 believes that by working with suppliers we can make a positive difference to the sourcing of ingredients.\u201d \u201cNestl\u00e9\u2019s decision to conduct this investigation is to be applauded,\u201d he says. \u201cIf you\u2019ve got one of the biggest brands in the world proactively coming out and admitting that they have found slavery in their business operations, then it\u2019s potentially a huge game-changer and could lead to real and sustained change in how supply chains are managed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Last year Verit\u00e9 was involved in another exercise in self-disclosure by outdoor clothing company Patagonia, which announced<\/a> that it had discovered several points in its supply chain in Taiwan where forced labour and unethical recruitment practices were flourishing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Verite\u2019s chief executive, Dan Viederman, said: \u201cIn the last six months Verit\u00e9 has been involved in two high-profile disclosures from major brands and one of the most important lessons for us to recognise is that in neither case did the companies suffer greatly in terms of being associated with these labour conditions. Instead, they received some credit [for] being bold enough to be associated with this.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI really hope that the recent examples help mobilise companies to be bolder and investigate more deeply because soon the reputational damage in not doing so could be considerable\u201d For Viederman, the biggest issue is working out how to manage the disclosures into actual change for vulnerable people trapped at the bottom of global commodity chains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There is also a growing legal imperative for many large multinationals to start seriously engaging with labour abuses in their business operations. Legislation in both the US<\/a> and the UK <\/a>requires larger companies to publish annual reports on their efforts to keep their businesses slavery-free.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The success of the 2010 California Transparency in Supply Chains Act has been patchy<\/a> but it has spawned a series of civil litigation suits, with consumers or workers using the legislation to launch legal actions against companies they accuse of making misleading public statements on their anti-slavery efforts. Nestl\u00e9 is one of the companies facing legal action in the US. Last week the company, along with Cargill and Archer Daniels Midland, failed in its bid<\/a> to get the US Supreme Court to throw out a lawsuit seeking to hold them liable for the alleged use of child slaves<\/a> in cocoa farming in the Ivory Coast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This puts the company in the unfortunate position of disclosing slavery in one part of its operations, while at the same time fighting through the courts to fend off accusations that it exists in another \u2013 more profitable \u2013 part of its business. By the time Nestl\u00e9 owned up to slavery in the Thai seafood industry it was accepted knowledgeAndrew Wallis<\/p>\n\n\n\n Andrew Wallis, chief executive of Unseen UK<\/a>, an anti-trafficking charity advocating for more supply chain accountability, said: \u201cFor me there is a big issue with one part of Nestl\u00e9 saying, \u2018OK we have been dragged along with everyone else to face the issue of slavery in Thailand and so let\u2019s take the initiative and do something about it\u2019, and at the same time fighting tooth and nail through the courts to avoid charges of child slavery in its core operations in the Ivory Coast.\u201d He argues that Nestl\u00e9\u2019s self-reporting could also be seen as a tactic to head off or deflate other pending civil litigation suits. \u201cIt\u2019s easy to own up to something that has already been uncovered,\u201d he says. \u201cBy the time Nestl\u00e9 owned up to slavery in the Thai seafood industry it was accepted knowledge. It\u2019ll be a brave new world when companies are actually doing the real investigation to probe into part of their supply chains that have remained outside the public domain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe need to move into a space where we say, \u2018We\u2019re all guilty; let\u2019s get past that to a place where we can properly address the problem\u2019 \u2013 and I don\u2019t think we\u2019re there yet.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The company has won plaudits for its admission of forced labour in the Thai seafood industry but much of the supply chain remains hidden It\u2019s hard to think of an issue that you would less like your company to be associated with than modern slavery. Yet last November Nestl\u00e9, the world\u2019s largest foodmaker and one […]\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4120,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"tpgb_global_settings":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4119","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"tpgb_featured_images":{"full":["https:\/\/site.hopetoheal.org.za\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/4096.jpg",620,372,false],"tp-image-grid":["https:\/\/site.hopetoheal.org.za\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/4096.jpg",620,372,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/site.hopetoheal.org.za\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/4096-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/site.hopetoheal.org.za\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/4096-300x180.jpg",300,180,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/site.hopetoheal.org.za\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/4096.jpg",620,372,false],"large":["https:\/\/site.hopetoheal.org.za\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/4096.jpg",620,372,false],"default":"https:\/\/site.hopetoheal.org.za\/staging\/wp-content\/plugins\/the-plus-addons-for-block-editor\/assets\/images\/tpgb-placeholder.jpg"},"tpgb_post_meta_info":{"get_date":"October 20, 2019","get_modified_date":"October 20, 2019","category_list":{"category":[{"term_id":19,"name":"News","slug":"news","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":19,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":238,"filter":"raw"}],"post_tag":false,"post_format":false},"author_name":"Hope To Heal","author_url":"https:\/\/site.hopetoheal.org.za\/staging\/author\/hope2233\/","author_email":"webmaster@hopetoheal.org.za","author_website":"","author_description":"Our mission is for women and children to live free from violence and abuse and to provide quality, compassionate, and nonjudgmental services in a manner that fosters self-respect and independence in persons experiencing domestic violence and child abuse and to lead the struggle to end domestic violence through advocacy and community education.","author_facebook":"","author_twitter":"","author_instagram":"","author_role":["administrator"],"author_firstname":"Hope To","author_lastname":"Heal Foundation","user_login":"Hope2233","author_avatar":"
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The research<\/a> (pdf) for Nestl\u00e9\u2019s report was conducted by US corporate accountability business Verit\u00e9, which works closely with organisations trying to help improve their supply chain transparency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\nCleaning up the supply chain<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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