Forced labor is prevalent in the manufacture of the technology we rely on every day.
KnowTheChain has produced its second ICT Benchmark Report ranking 40 global technology companies on how they address forced labor in their supply chains. The initial report was released in 2016. “This is the first time we’ve been able to measure companies’ progress against where they were two years ago,” said Kilian Moote, Project Director of KnowTheChain. “It’s encouraging that companies are starting to address forced labor. But this benchmark shows that the sector needs to advance their efforts further down the supply chain in order to truly protect vulnerable workers.”
The 40 ICT companies were assessed across the benchmark’s seven themes, which were developed to capture the key areas where companies need to take action to eradicate forced labor from their supply chains: commitment; traceability and risk assessment; purchasing practices; recruitment; worker voice; monitoring; and remedy. The average benchmark score was 32 out of 100 possible points. Visit knowthechain.org for the report and a comparison tool of company rankings across themes.
KnowTheChain is a project of Humanity United, maintained in partnership with the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre (BHRRC), Sustainalytics, and Verité. Verité’s role in this collaboration is to provide advice and resources for companies to improve their performance in the areas where Sustainalytics and BHRRC’s research has identified as lacking.