Verité conducted exploratory research in Mozambique and Burma to document the ways in which environmental degradation tied to deforestation can worsen poverty and insecurity, and push people into exploitative labor conditions, including trafficking in persons. Findings from case studies on logging, agricultural plantations, and road construction document the root causes of labor risk associated with deforestation and provide steps stakeholders can take to reduce labor exploitation and environmental degradation.

More than 230 Workplaces Assessed, most of which were conducted remotely with a focus on worker input. Verité redesigned its audit approach amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, preserving our in-depth, practical approach to assessments that brings real change to workplaces. Importantly, this includes continued commitment to reaching vulnerable worker populations remotely, with our assessment teams placing significant emphasis on worker input as the most critical component of our auditing work. Verité chooses to work with multinational corporations across countries and business sectors who have demonstrated a commitment to making lasting impact on the lives of workers. Our comprehensive, worker-centric approach to audits identifies risk in supply chains and offers practical recommendations to remedy problems and fight root causes.

Verité launched a major new program in Mexico to promote and protect labor rights more effectively in the sugarcane and tobacco sectors. SENDEROS combines intensive rights training and access to grievance mechanisms for workers with closely coordinated efforts with both the Mexican government and the private sector to create a new approach to labor rights compliance in the agricultural sector that has long experienced poor working conditions.

For commercial teams and suppliers, we ran a series of 1/2-day, 1-day and 2-day remote courses for those promoting change in apparel, electronics, seafood, agriculture, and other sectors. Our experts led customized sessions on:

• Red flagging modern slavery risk indicators (buyers and suppliers)
• Supply chain due diligence: risk screening (for buyers)
• Labor supply chain due diligence: broker screening and management(for suppliers
• Root cause analysis and corrective action management (for suppliers)
• Internal monitoring and action planning (for suppliers)

To find out more, email training@verite.org.

 In partnership with the ILO and Alianza Hortofrutícola Internacional para el Fomento de la Responsabilidad Social (AHIFORES), known in English as the International Fruit and Vegetable Alliance for Social Responsibility, with funding from the European Union, Verité co-developed a toolkit and training courses to support Mexican producers’ efforts to promote ethical recruitment on their farms, based on national laws and international standards.

In the spring, we began offering guidance to companies to support their efforts to safeguard workers’ rights in their supply chains. This series of articles included memos on “COVID-19 in the Coffee Sector,” “Challenges and Recommendations for Workplaces Open During the Pandemic,” and “Guiding Principles for Responsible Businesses During the COVID-19 Pandemic,” as well as case studies on “African Migrants in the Strawberry Fields and Greenhouses in Spain” and “How Verité China Responded to the Changing Needs of Suppliers Due to the COVID-19 Pandemic,” among other resources.

Nearly two years since the platform’s launch, approximately 250 employer entities have been screened for forced labor risk or are in process. Of those, data from 150 employers and several hundred of their recruitment agents — accounting for the recruitment of 51,500 foreign migrant workers from 45 different countries — is on the CUMULUS platform and available to their buyers and stakeholders. Some of these employers have now completed a second risk screening, and findings from this subset indicate that those that have recruited new cohorts of foreign workers have begun to establish agency relationships, systems, and processes that are foundational to fully absorbing the true cost of ethical recruitment — and, significantly, to holding their recruitment agents and other intermediaries accountable for ensuring that workers are not charged for their jobs.

The three-year Cooperation On Fair, Free, Equitable Employment (COFFEE) Project involves the creation of a robust toolkit on improving labor conditions in the coffee sector, as well as trainings and guidance on implementation of the toolkit, and three pilot projects. The Socially Sustainable Sourcing Toolkit (S3T) has been drafted and refined by the project’s Expert Committee (comprised of CSOs, IGOs, academics, certifiers, and other experts on sustainability, labor, and the coffee sector). An Advisory Council of coffee company representatives will provide targeted feedback within a user-oriented framework by February 2021.The three pilot projects will seek to: promote ethical labor recruitment in Brazil; address risks related to piece-rate pay among women and Venezuelan immigrants in Colombia; and build the capacity of coffee producers, field technicians, and agronomists to identify and address labor risks in Mexico. The project in Brazil is already underway, while the projects in Colombia and Mexico will begin in the first half of 2021.