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The Global Business of Forced Labour: Report of Findings

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This report presents the findings from the Global Business of Forced Labour project. The project is a first-of-its kind international research study investigating the business models of forced labour in global agricultural supply chains. Over two years the project systematically mapped the business of forced labour, focusing on case studies of cocoa and tea supply chains. Through extensive primary research in the cocoa industry in Ghana and the tea industry in India and with domestic and international business actors, the project generated an original dataset that sheds light on the drivers and patterns of forced labour in agricultural supply chains feeding UK markets. This dataset includes in-depth interviews with over 120 tea and cocoa workers, a survey of over 1000 tea and cocoa workers, and over 100 interviews with business and government actors including: tea and cocoa plantation managers, buyers, large multinational beverage and confectionery companies, corporate social responsibility experts. The report analyses the patterns of forced labour in cocoa and tea supply chains and the effectiveness of key business and government initiatives in combatting it. By way of conclusion, it offers recommendations to strengthen approaches to address and prevent forced labour in supply chains. Targeted recommendations for policymakers, business, and certification organisations are laid out in a series of policy briefs that accompanies this report.
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... For example, similar to the seafood sector, cocoa and tea have voluntary multi-stakeholder initiatives designed to combat forced labor. However, recent work has found that forced labor prevalence was not lower in plantations that were 'fair trade' certified 55,56 . Implementation of voluntary market-based solutions that are not anchored to binding commitments (marketbased or regulatory) 57 have been less effective for labor abuse in supply chains where it is systemic, 55 and where rising production costs, highly competitive sourcing, and relatively flat or declining prices are prevalent 55,56 , characterisics present in the seafood sector 2 . ...
... However, recent work has found that forced labor prevalence was not lower in plantations that were 'fair trade' certified 55,56 . Implementation of voluntary market-based solutions that are not anchored to binding commitments (marketbased or regulatory) 57 have been less effective for labor abuse in supply chains where it is systemic, 55 and where rising production costs, highly competitive sourcing, and relatively flat or declining prices are prevalent 55,56 , characterisics present in the seafood sector 2 . Stronger worker-driven verification systems and human rights due diligence would need to be in place before marketbased solutions like ethical certifications should be considered 55 . ...
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Labor abuse on fishing vessels and illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing violate human rights, jeopardize food security, and deprive governments of revenues. We applied a multi-method approach, combining new empirical data with satellite information on fishing activities and vessel characteristics to map risks of labor abuse and IUU fishing, understand their relationships, and identify major drivers. Port risks were globally pervasive and often coupled, with 57% of assessed ports associated with labor abuse or IUU fishing. For trips ending in assessed ports, 82% were linked to labor abuse or IUU fishing risks. At-sea risk areas were primarily driven by fishing vessel flags linked to poor control of corruption by the flag state, high ownership by countries other than the flag state, and Chinese-flagged vessels. Transshipment risk areas were related to the gear type of fishing vessels engaged in potential transshipment and carrier vessel flags. Measures at port offer promise for mitigating risks, through the Port State Measures Agreement for IUU fishing, and ensuring sufficient vessel time at port to detect and respond to labor abuse. Our results highlight the need for coordinated action across actors to avoid risk displacement and make progress towards eliminating these socially, environmentally and economically unsustainable practices.
... The continued development of social metrics and associated data to support a just transition to sustainable diets is critical. Important work has identified social issues and associated metrics for a small number of specific supply chains such as cocoa and tea, and overall country-level food systems [43][44][45][46] . However, data availability and resolution are major challenges, in addition to the time and cost intensity of primary data collection with those most affected, such as workers. ...
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The social dimension of sustainable diets, which addresses the impacts of food value chains on people, animals and communities, is under-represented in the food systems field. We present a definition of the social dimension of sustainable diets, clarify its boundaries and propose corresponding outcomes. Three case studies highlight the connectivity of social outcomes with the health, environment and economic dimensions of sustainable diets. The continued development of social metrics, data and methods and the implementation of integrated solutions co-developed with affected communities are needed to transform systems and structures that perpetuate unjust and inequitable food systems outcomes.
... Ever since the establishment, the labourer pulled to tea plantations of Assam and West Bengal by colonial ruler has worked with limited freedom as intergenerational bonded labour (Gupta, 1992;Raman, 2002;Bhowmik, 2011;Gupta and Swamy, 2017;LeBaron, 2018;Siegmann and Sathi, 2022;Kalita, 2022a). Deficient skills and education of tea labourer besides various binding regulations of the company constrain them from moving outside the plantation economy in search of better employment opportunities (Gurung and Mukherjee, 2018;Sarkar and Ghosh, 2021). ...
... Ever since the establishment, the labourer pulled to tea plantations of Assam and West Bengal by colonial ruler has worked with limited freedom as intergenerational bonded labour (Gupta, 1992;Raman, 2002;Bhowmik, 2011;Gupta and Swamy, 2017;LeBaron, 2018;Siegmann and Sathi, 2022;Kalita, 2022a). Deficient skills and education of tea labourer besides various binding regulations of the company constrain them from moving outside the plantation economy in search of better employment opportunities (Gurung and Mukherjee, 2018;Sarkar and Ghosh, 2021). ...
... As seen from the different definitions in the Appendix, modern slavery is an umbrella term (Carrington et al., 2021;Nolan & Bott, 2018;Rioux et al., 2020) that is debatable and contentious, and researchers argue that the term does not adequately describe the situation of severe labor exploitation with no clear consensus on which practices or kinds of people would be included under the term (Allain, 2012;Quirk, 2011;Gutierrez-Huerter O et al., 2021;Liu et al., 2022;LeBaron, 2018). More radical scholars even discussed if the term "modern slavery" should be abolished because it describes many forms of unethical practices that cannot be tackled or treated as one specific issue (O'Connell Davidson, 2015). ...
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It is estimated that 40.3 million individuals are victims of modern slavery, including those exploited in projects. In project studies, there are growing research streams on topics, such as ethics, sustainability and fairness, yet modern slavery is vastly ignored. This article presents a systematic literature review on modern slavery. After summarizing the main forms and consequences of modern slavery, it focuses on construction projects explaining the structural conditions making construction projects prone to modern slavery, the kafala system, and what can be done to address modern slavery. Lastly, the article introduces propositions, a research agenda, and implications for practice.
... The Rainforest Alliance (RA) certification scheme is the most common private voluntary tea standard worldwide and is used extensively for Indian tea exports to OECD markets. However, evidence suggests that plantation-based tea workers continue to suffer from low wages and inadequate working and living conditions in spite of private certification (LeBaron, 2018). ...
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Sustainability standards verify that goods and services meet minimum social and environmental norms. They have rapidly gained traction in value chains that connect lead firms with dispersed global suppliers. Historically, such standards have been created by firms, civil society and state regulators in the global North to govern global value chains sourcing goods and services from Southern producers. However, this century has witnessed the emergence of Southern-led sustainability standards. While a few studies have investigated this development, little is yet known about how Southern standards are shaped by public and private actors, or how domestic as well as global value chain dynamics impact their development. We address these gaps through a comparative study of Chinese clothing and Indian tea standards. Drawing upon the concepts of synergistic and antagonistic forms of governance, this article analyses how, when and why Southern actors (public, private and social) choose to develop new sustainability programmes which either emulate or else disrupt established transnational standards within this governance arena. Recognising the agency of Southern actors, but also their constraints to act within this established field, we examine how the sector-specific political economy dynamics of apparel and tea production shape the mechanisms, processes and relations through which Southern sustainability standards are forged in this increasingly multi-polar world of trade and production.
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This paper discusses the effects of COVID-19-induced pandemic on tea plantation workers during lockdown phases in India. The tea industry, being a labour-intensive, employs around 1.2 million permanent workers who usually reside within the plantations along with their families, making the largest employer in the formal private sector. Drawing from secondary data and narratives from in-depth telephonic interviews with various key informants during and post-lockdown, this study shows that plantation workers faced livelihood crisis due to subsequent lockdowns during both the waves of COVID-19 health crisis. Poor health infrastructure in the tea estates, weak trade union and existing wage determination methods are responsible for livelihood crisis for plantation workers during pandemic. Except state-assisted social assistance benefits in terms of ration, unlike permanent workers of other sectors and industries, regular plantation workers did not even receive compensated wages from the employer during lockdown, following ‘no-wage for no-work’ clause. Ineffective labour market institutions and rigid managementality failed to protect tea plantation workers during the crisis.
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This research article uses a multidisciplinary view to address the issue of public and common interest in contract farming schemes. Humanity is at a crucial point where food systems and institutions must offer a radical change to guarantee people's right to food. Contract farming today, influenced by the commodification of food, nature and the land, and neoliberal ideology, must be restructured into a more sustainable model. In a sustainable vision, redesigned contract farming can be a factor of change, particularly in the agricultural sector development, and therefore positively impact the general welfare of farmers. This article addresses the role of contract farming within the process of neoliberal globalisation and commodification of food, as well as ways to reformulate these contracting schemes based on the public and common interest. It reviews the use of this legal tool from its beginnings in the US South to the current ideological battles. This essay addresses the conceptual elements of contract farming, as can be seen in its definition, based on a comparison between English and Spanish literature. The research employs legal and social methods such as the legal-doctrinal, comparative legal, document analysis, historical and, in a certain way, some legal-empirical approaches. We show the importance of reconfiguring contract farming based on sustainable schemes under public and common interest principles. Thus, the results show an updated and multidisciplinary view of contract farming and some ways to reformulate it, considering the general guidelines of the common and public interests. This article, therefore, provides a comparative, historical and current analysis of the components underlying contract farming and how to move towards a more sustainable variant based on a more humanistic and balanced approach for farmers and agribusiness.
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This paper attempts to analyse the trends in production and employment in the tea sector in Assam at a disaggregated level. While much of the discussion on the impact of globalisation on tea sector revolves around trends in tea auction prices and exports, the present study looks at the post-reform changes in production and labour use in the tea producing districts of Assam. The analysis of growth performance of the tea sector clearly brings out the fact that declining productivity in the sector at the all India level gets manifested in the tea gardens of Assam much more pronouncedly than in any other state or region. Within Assam, while there have been some gains in terms of area in few districts, the dismal performance in productivity growth has been all pervasive, particularly in the last few years. In terms of growth of employment, Assam’s performance has worsened in recent years. Although labour productivity had increased relatively comfortably during the 1980s, during the 1990s labour productivity growth slumped in many of the districts of Assam. Employment elasticity has come down in Assam in the nineties in comparison to the eighties. At the district level, it has declined for almost all the districts during the nineties. The slow growth in productivity as well as in employment has significant implication for labour households dependent on the tea sector. Increasingly they find it difficult to get absorbed in the tea sector, their traditional sources of livelihood.
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Based on historical sources and ethnographic fieldwork in Ghana, the article presents child labour in cocoa communities as the outcome of a complex myriad of micro-level factors. It argues that many policy initiatives to address this problem have been hindered by a lack of understanding of the social and historical context impacting child rights in cocoa-producing communities. It also argues that by enabling a more grounded and gender-sensitive understanding of the household dimension of poor labour practices and of the plurality of factors underlying them, ethnography makes an important contribution to debates on unfree labour.
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On May 30 irate workers of a tea estate in Assam's Sonitpur district hacked and burnt to death the estate's deputy manager and senior assistant manager. Trade union leaders from the tea industry have unequivocally condemned the incident. But they have also drawn attention to the fact that tea garden managements in Assam have been systematically ignoring the demands of the workers, especially for welfare measures. Successive governments in Assam have failed to force managements to implement the Plantations Labour Act of 1951. Managements now claim that the industry is passing through a recession, but during the tea boom of the 1990s the same managements did not share even a minuscule part of their prosperity with the workers.