News
Verité News From our Vision Newsletter
Living Income and Living Wage Study for the Colombian Coffee Sector
On October 6 and 7, 2022, Verité, in partnership with the Anker Research Institute and with support from, RGC Coffee, organized two online sessions to present the results and recommendations of the “Living Income and Living Wage Report” for rural areas and small towns of coffee-growing regions in central Colombia.
When Coffee Farmers Face Crises, Farmworkers Suffer Most
Labor is the single largest component of most coffee farmers’ costs of production. In Latin America, for example, labor accounts for the majority of production costs.
How to Conduct Effective Forced Labor Due Diligence at Scale?
Social audits have proven to be ineffective in detecting and preventing debt bonded labor, the most pervasive and entrenched form of forced labor in global supply chains today. While deep dive, focused, worker-centric investigations of the type conducted by Verité and like-minded organizations, are the gold standard to detect and remedy these abuses, it is neither practical nor cost effective for buyers, investors, and other stakeholders to use this approach at every workplace in high-risk countries, sectors, supply chain tiers, or migration corridors.
Reflections on Workers’ Rights to Safe and Decent Conditions
Dhaka Principle 7 – Working conditions are safe and decent – the vital principle to ensure migrant workers enjoy safe and decent conditions of work, free from harassment, any form of intimidation or inhuman treatment. They should receive adequate health and safety provision and training in relevant languages.
Employer Pays Verification
Debt bondage, due to the imposition of recruitment fees and costs on foreign migrant workers, remains the most pervasive and entrenched form of forced labor in global supply chains today. Reimbursement is an important remedy but, on its own, it is not a solution to the underlying root causes of this ongoing labor abuse.
Work Behind Bars
The U.S. prison system has been under increasing scrutiny in recent years for issues such as systematic racism, inhumane conditions, overcrowding, and sexual violence. While these issues are extremely pressing, another important issue, forced prison labor, is often overlooked. Therefore, as a labor rights organization, Verité determined that we could most effectively contribute to the critique of the U.S. prison system by lending an international human rights lens to the conversation on prison labor.
What We’re Talking About in March
Working to End Forced Labor for Cotton Workers in Central Asia | New report on forced labor goods and Department of Defense (DOD) commissaries and exchanges | Commission sets out strategy to promote decent work worldwide | More than 2 billion workers make up the informal economy
Responding to Refugee Vulnerability to Trafficking: Ukraine and Beyond
The political and humanitarian crises in Ukraine are reshaping the landscape for supply chain accountability throughout the broader region. More than 4 million refugees have fled Ukraine into neighboring countries, according to the UN. Prior to the Ukraine crisis, the numbers of internally displaced people and refugees globally were already at record highs, with more than 26 million Syrians, Central Americans, Venezuelans, South Sudanese, Rohingya, and others living as refugees abroad, and more than 84 million people around the world forcibly displaced in the first half of 2021.
2021: A Year in Review
Only a year ago, stories about supply chains were seldom featured in the media. As we arrive at the close of 2021, news stories focusing on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on supply chains is provided daily, and reports in the media have made consumers increasingly aware of where the goods they purchase come from, how they are made, and who works to harvest, produce, and deliver those goods.
What We’re Talking About in December 2021
New Global Initiative to Empower Workers, Ensure Rights, Promote Democracy | World Migration Report 2022 | The Role Institutional Investors Can Play in the Fight Against Forced Labor and Modern Slavery | Small Children are Climbing 60-Foot Trees to Harvest Your Açaí | The Secretive Prisons That Keep Migrants Out of Europe | The Supply Chain Crisis is a Labor Crisis
Verité in the News
Read coverage of Verité’s work in The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Guardian, The Associated Press, The Los Angeles Times, and more.
