Organisational Responsibilities: Eradicating Modern Slavery from International Business Organizations

This essay aims to discuss the burning issue of modern slavery in the international business organizations. It discusses the importance of awareness among the international business organization about any unethical actions associated with slavery take place in their supply chain and justifies the necessity of immediate response to such issues by the global leaders in which the corporate social responsibilities may contribute.

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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.
Justification
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

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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.

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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

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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.
Articulation of opposing view
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

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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.

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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.
Rebuttal of opposing view

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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.

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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.

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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-
 verification of the legal stranding of the suppliers with which the organizations
work. This process includes review of audited financial statements,
registration documents, shareholder along with director lists and previous
trading names.
 Conducting media audit in order to find any type of news coverage in the
companies which may indicate negative third party track record.
 Monitoring he regulatory, bankrupt and litigation databases in jurisdiction
where their suppliers are registered hence operate.
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

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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.

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References:
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Crane, A., 2013. Modern slavery as a management practice: Exploring the conditions and
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Davidson, J.O.C., 2015. Modern slavery: The margins of freedom. Springer.
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