Child and forced labour project

Why the project is needed

Evidence from the US Department of Labor and the National Human Trafficking Hotline indicates that cases of forced labour and child labour nationwide have increased significantly in the last five years. Cases of minors employed in violation of hazardous occupation laws and working outside of federally allowed hours have also increased across states and industries. Research indicates that increased global poverty, volatility and migration, alongside shortages in the US labour market are contributing factors in these trends.

About the project

In response to these mounting issues, we have undertaken a three-phase program to engage with supply chain partners, strengthen risk management in procurement and raise awareness across the industry.

Phase 1 – A collaboration between 12 AIM-Progress members and Verité, a non-profit organisation with expertise in addressing serious labour rights issues. We rolled out US-specific child and forced labour training and remediation guidance to 25 suppliers, service & labour providers through online webinars and more than 950 procurement staff, suppliers, service and labour providers via online training online.

Phase 2 – The online training was made freely available to the public via Verité and AIM-Progress websites. It was validated by six civil society organisations and officially launched at the Engaging Business Forum in Atlanta. Since then, the landing page has attracted 1,800 visits, with 779 users completing registration.

Phase 3 – Project 1 focused on developing, together with LRQA, a third-party workforce provider vetting tool designed for procurement teams, labour and service providers, to inform procurement decisions and identify gaps in management systems. Project 2 centred on researching state-specific child labour provisions and assessing the support needs of civil society organisations, leading to the development of a comprehensive child labour remediation framework for use by business.

Objectives

Across the three projects our goals are to:

• • Raise awareness of child and forced labour amongst US manufacturing sector and service providers.
  • Strengthen the sector’s management systems for identifying, addressing and remediating cases.
  • Support procurement teams to better identify suppliers and service providers capability in this space and support continuous improvement.
  • Create a blueprint to replicate effective remediation for future cases of child labour and avoid non-repetition.

In addition to tracking the number of participants, we have monitored changes in knowledge and subsequent actions taken as a result of the training. Post-training surveys revealed that 95% of respondents were either “Very Satisfied” or “Satisfied” with the training. At the same time, 42% indicated a need for support in identifying partner organisations and social services to assist remediation, while 25% expressed the need for support in building relationships with organisations capable of providing such assistance.