In 2018, we conducted ground-breaking research, amplified our impact, and engaged with multinational brands to help eliminate labor and human rights abuses in global supply chains. Explore a selection of our achievements in assessments, consulting, policy, research, and training below.
Japan’s steadily declining native workforce has created a dependence on low-skilled foreign labor. This, in turn, has created a vulnerable foreign workforce at risk for suffering myriad labor abuses. Japan’s Technical Intern Training Program (TITP) attracts hundreds of thousands of workers each year, primarily from other Asian countries. From 2015 to 2017, Verité collected and analyzed testimonies of Chinese trainees in the TITP program who had submitted complaints to a local migrant advocacy organization. The findings are available in the new paper Forced Labor Risk in Japan’s Technical Intern Training Program: Exploration of Indicators among Chinese Trainees Seeking Remedy.
Verité has launched a helpline for Filipino workers facing forced labor risks as guest workers in Japan. Generously funded by The Walt Disney Company, My Labor Matters is a communication platform that links migrating and returning workers with each other and with a network of supporting NGOs and other resources in Japan and the Philippines, including hotline, on-line training, legal resources and official information and trends. Workers can learn about risks and resources available to them through video and social media, including ‘Aimee’s Story’ which illustrates the risky journey that many migrants experience.