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.
Verité por los Trabajadores | Verité for the Workers
Lograr el cumplimiento de los derechos humanos en los ambientes laborales sigue siendo un reto en muchas industrias del mundo. Pese a que se ha establecido el derecho a tener un trabajo que provea de una remuneración justa y que permita una vida digna para los trabajadores y sus familias, hoy todavía no podemos decir que este derecho está garantizado.
—
Achieving compliance with human rights in the workplace remains a challenge in many industries around the world. Although the right to have a job that provides fair remuneration and that allows a decent life for workers and their families has been established, today we still cannot say that this right is guaranteed.
Rethinking Responsibility in Our Supply Chain
Labor issues are complex and deeply entrenched in recruitment malpractices. Many migrant workers are forced to pay excessive recruitment fees that keep them in debt, effectively placing them in situations of forced labor and exploitive working...
ATEST Calls for Catalytic Investment to Fight Human Trafficking in Recommendations to Biden Transition Team
The Alliance to End Slavery and Trafficking (ATEST), a U.S.-based coalition that advocates for solutions to prevent and end all forms of human trafficking and forced labor, and of which Verité is a long-time member, recently released its...
U.S. Department of Labor Releases 2020 List of Goods Produced by Child Labor or Forced Labor
Few reports have as much significance in the world of labor rights as the bi-annual U.S. Department of Labor’s List of Goods Produced by Child Labor or Forced Labor, the latest edition of which was released on September 30.
Ethical Recruitment Remains Elusive in Global Supply Chains: Learnings From Verité’s Remote CUMULUS Forced Labor Screen™ Platform
Despite the growing awareness of, and commitments to, ethical recruitment, an analysis of CUMULUS data from early 2019 to the present reveals that less than five percent of employers fully absorb the true cost of cross border recruitment, including all recruitment fees and related costs. Instead, those costs continue to be passed on to foreign migrant workers.
Companies Called to Support Waste Pickers, a Global Essential Workforce at Risk
Workers who handle waste and recyclables support the health of our communities, economies, and the environment at the expense of their own health and wellbeing. On a daily basis, they may be exposed to hazardous materials, such as household cleaners, pesticides, and medical waste. The COVID-19 pandemic only heightens these health risks, particularly to informal waste pickers who collect the recyclable materials that we throw in the trash.
Remediation and Elimination of Recruitment Costs Charged to Migrant Workers
Migrant workers are frequently confronted with a choice: pay illegal or unethical recruitment fees for employment abroad or go without work altogether. To finance these exorbitant costs, they may take out loans that leave them vulnerable to debt bondage, a form of forced labor. For more than a decade, Verité has worked with global companies in diverse sectors to ensure their suppliers and business partners absorb the true cost of recruitment and prohibit the charging of recruitment costs to workers, in accordance with international standards and regulations.
FAR Definition Takes a Zero-Tolerance Approach to Recruitment Fees
Prohibiting federal contractors from charging workers recruitment fees is a cornerstone of the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) requiring contractors and subcontractors to take specific preventive measures to detect and eliminate forced labor and human trafficking in their supply chains. In December 2018, the U.S. Government amended the FAR to include a comprehensive and clear definition of what constitute “recruitment fees.”
Private Kenyan Employment Agencies Learn About Promoting Ethical Recruitment in Qatar
In an unprecedented step toward protecting Kenyan migrant workers in Qatar, this past December, seven Kenyan licensed Private Employment Agencies (PEAs) participated in a visit to Doha to learn about ethical recruitment and worker welfare...
