“With the majority of modern slaves in agriculture and mining around the world – and forced labor prevalent in cotton, chocolate, steel, rubber, tin, tungsten, coltan, sugar, and seafood – it is impossible to get dressed, drive to work, talk on the phone, or eat a meal without touching products tainted by forced labor. Even reputable companies can profit from abuse when they do not protect their supply chain – whether at the level of raw materials, parts, or final products – from modern slavery.”
– Trafficking in Persons Report 2010, U.S. State Department
Over 85 million workers are migrating internationally at any given time. Nearly 300 million Indians migrate within India. Forced labor, alone, drains over $20 billion dollars from the world’s poor. Meanwhile, an average factory labor rights inspection costs $4,000. There is immense scope for LaborVoices to have a powerful, positive impact, preventing abuse through labor market transparency. Workers who know more about their employers can make better decisions and avoid abuse.
Consider Nasreen, a worker in Bangladesh migrating to a distant factory in Sweden. She hears that the wages are good, suitable living and dining facilities are available, and that a labor broker will arrange for her to travel to Sweden for a large fee. Nasreen borrows money from family and lenders, planning to repay debts, and send surplus money home.
A worker like this often finds that none of these facts are true. She is not delivered to Sweden, nor to the correct factory. She is not paid well, nor on time. Her living and dining facilities are poor or non-existent. Her meager take-home wage doubles the time she will be in debt, with her family’s safety at risk from her creditors. Her documentation is confiscated, holding her in virtual captivity.
This worker becomes vulnerable because she must rely on very poor information sources—she doesn’t know whom to trust. This is where LaborVoices comes in.
With earlier access to accurate reputations of recruiters and employers, she will use LV to fact-check the rumors she hears, and make informed choices. Those employers who earn workers’ trust have an advantage over their more abusive competitors—better reputations give them better access to workers and buyers.