scholarly journals Forced labour in supply chains: Rolling back the debate on gender, migration and sexual commerce

2021 ◽  
pp. 135050682110207
Author(s):  
Rutvica Andrijasevic

This article makes a conceptual contribution to the broader literature on unfree labour by challenging the separate treatment of sexual and industrial labour exploitation both by researchers and in law and policy. This article argues that the prevailing focus of the supply chain literature on industrial labour has inadvertently posited sexual labour as the ‘other’ of industrial labour thus obfuscating how the legal blurring of boundaries between industrial and service labour is engendering new modalities of the erosion of workers’ rights that are increasingly resembling those typical of sex work. This article advances the debate on unfree labour both conceptually and empirically. Conceptually, it highlights the relevance of social reproduction in understanding forms of labour unfreedom. Empirically, it demonstrates the similarities in forms of control and exploitation between sex work and industrial work by illustrating how debt and housing operate in both settings.

Author(s):  
Sicco Santema

In this paper we take a closer look at developments in supply management. The main change in this discipline seems to be (2011) that cooperation and risk management are taking over the classical silo based way of looking at business. Companies start to learn that transactions block the profits throughout the chain. Or, to put it the other way around, supply chain parties learn that sharing interests is earning much more money and that supply chains become ‘faster, cheaper and better’.


2019 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 30-49
Author(s):  
Coretta Phillips

Modern slavery has received somewhat limited attention in social policy. Partially responding to this gap, while acknowledging the contested nature of the term ‘modern slavery’, this article makes the case for the primary and secondary analysis of ‘slave narratives’ which provide experiential and agential accounts by those directly harmed by forced labour, coerced sex work and other forms of exploitation. Analysis of a narrative interview with Sean, a (citizen-)victim of forced labour proved under s.71 of the Coroners and Justice Act 2009, demonstrates the multifaceted nature of labour exploitation and its multiple, severe and long-lasting harms. That the form and structure of Sean’s narrative of forced labour resembles those used in the abolitionist cause against antebellum slavery points to a certain timeless essence to forced labour exploitation. The article concludes with implications for intervention.


Author(s):  
Tridib Bandyopadhyay

Managers often decide to integrate supply chains of collaborating firms. Whether such decisions are for competitive posture, cost saving or operational efficiencies, it is important to understand that supply chains integrate not only the flow of goods but also the information processes and assets and more often than not, the IT networks of the firms. Thus two developments occur. First, IT security losses of one firm collocate at the other firm's servers as information assets like demand forecasts are shared. Second, the Intranets of both firms get connected with the help of VPN or similar technologies, making it possible that a breach can travel from one firm to the other. This in turn makes IT security risks of SC firms strategically interdependent. This chapter analyzes such interdependent IT security risks and provides insights for SC and IT managers who are poised to collaborate with other downstream or upstream partner firms.


Author(s):  
Nicola Phillips

This chapter introduces the field of International Political Economy (IPE), the themes and insights of which are reflected in the Global Political Economy (GPE), and what it offers in the study of contemporary globalization. It begins with three framing questions: How should we think about power in the contemporary global political economy? How does IPE help us to understand what drives globalization? What does IPE tell us about who wins and who loses from globalization? The chapter proceeds by discussing various approaches to IPE and the consequences of globalization, focusing on IPE debates about inequality, labour exploitation, and global migration. Two case studies are presented, one dealing with the BRICs and the rise of China, and the other with slavery and forced labour in global production. There is also an Opposing Opinions box that asks whether national states are irrelevant in an era of economic globalization.


2005 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vincent Amanor-Boadu ◽  
S. Starbird

Enforcing compliance standards in supply chains using inspection and other traditional mechanisms may exacerbate the non-compliance effort by those who see these mechanisms as evidence of power imbalance in the relationship. The easier it is for anonymity to exist in supply chain relationships, the greater the incentive for non-compliance, thus creating value for anonymity. We argue that total chain performance can be enhanced by designing and operating supply chains in ways that provided enduring positive signals from the environment to minimize adverse perceptions of powerlessness, coercion and unfairness and increase members' perception of their identity with the organisation. We also explore the interaction between these perception factors and the human factors of opportunism, bounded rationality and risk aversion on the one hand and the environmental factors on the other.


2016 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-17
Author(s):  
Darja Topolšek ◽  
Dejan Dragan

Abstract The performance of tourism supply chains depends on the efficiency of all members involved, including the travel agencies. The paper addresses the analysis of relationships between the agencies’ external integration with other supply chain members on one side, and the efficiency of the agencies on the other. The data envelopment analysis is applied for the estimation of efficiencies, while the structural equation modelling (SEM) is conducted for identification of possible integration impacts on the efficiency. Results show that integration with other supply chain members indeed has some positive impacts on the agencies’ efficiency. Also, the developed SEM model implies that in-depth forms of collaboration would enable more effective exploitation of the identified relations between the integration and efficiency of the agencies. This finding could be an important guideline for the agencies’ management in the sense of achieving more satisfied customers and bigger profits, as well as reduced operational costs.


2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 195-215
Author(s):  
Hannah Thinyane ◽  
Michael Gallo

State lockdowns and travel restrictions introduced in response to COVID-19 have limited the ability of frontline responders to conduct on-site visits and inhibited their efforts to assess working conditions and monitor for labour exploitation within global supply chains. These challenges have increased multinational corporations’ reliance on remote technologies to assist in their supply chain due diligence processes. Our research investigates the use of one such example, Apprise Audit, which is a digital solution used for worker interviews in social compliance auditing that was modified to enable remote data collection. Based on a series of interviews with implementing partners and industry experts, our research finds that Apprise Audit Remote helps to overcome the difficulties of gathering worker feedback in the presence of COVID related constraints. Using this work as a case study, we then further elaborate on the practical opportunities and limitations associated with ICT-enabled remote auditing.


2016 ◽  
Vol 34 (4) ◽  
pp. 318-339 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julia Planitzer

This article gives an overview of current legal initiatives for enhanced transparency regulations for corporations and the actions they take against trafficking in human beings (THB). The California Transparency in Supply Chains Act (CTSCA) has an influence on legal initiatives in Europe, in particular in the United Kingdom. The UK's Modern Slavery Act includes the obligation for corporations to report on actions taken against THB and slavery. In addition, at the European Union level, measures to enhance obligatory reporting on non-fnancial matters, such as human rights matters, are to be implemented in national legislation in the next years. This article compares the California Transparency in Supply Chains Act with the UK's Modern Slavery Act. In order to decrease exploitation along the supply chain, the article concludes that legislation should not only require obligatory reporting but also oblige corporations to implement measures to prevent THB related to their activities.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-20
Author(s):  
Genevieve LEBARON

Abstract Wages – the monetary payments that workers receive from employers in exchange for their labour – are widely overlooked in academic and policy debates about human rights and business in global supply chains. They shouldn’t be. Just as living wages can insulate workers from human rights abuse and labour exploitation, wages that hover around or below the poverty line, compounded by illegal practices like wage theft and delayed payment, leave workers vulnerable to severe labour exploitation and human rights abuse. This article draws on data from a study of global tea and cocoa supply chains to explore the impact of wages on one of the most severe human rights abuses experienced in global supply chains, forced labour. Demonstrating that low-wage workers experience high vulnerability to forced labour in global supply chains, it argues that the role of wages in shaping or protecting workers from exploitation needs to be taken far more seriously by scholars and policymakers. When wages are ignored, so too is a crucial tool to protect human rights and heighten business accountability in global supply chains.


Author(s):  
Tridib Bandyopadhyay

Managers often decide to integrate supply chains of collaborating firms. Whether such decisions are for competitive posture, cost saving or operational efficiencies, it is important to understand that supply chains integrate not only the flow of goods but also the information processes and assets and more often than not, the IT networks of the firms. Thus two developments occur. First, IT security losses of one firm collocate at the other firm's servers as information assets like demand forecasts are shared. Second, the Intranets of both firms get connected with the help of VPN or similar technologies, making it possible that a breach can travel from one firm to the other. This in turn makes IT security risks of SC firms strategically interdependent. This chapter analyzes such interdependent IT security risks and provides insights for SC and IT managers who are poised to collaborate with other downstream or upstream partner firms.


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