The University of Hull’s Wilberforce Institute set up a Slavery and Trafficking Risk Assessment Service for Business Supply Chains in 2014 in anticipation of the UK Modern Slavery Act. Through the leadership of Cristina Talens, the Service provides businesses, practitioners and the wider community with tools and guidance to help fight and reduce the impact of modern day slavery. In this blog, Cristina talks about the work of the Risk Assessment Service and the changes that have taken place over the last ten years.
It has been incredible to see the changes in the regulatory landscape in terms of labour and human rights over the last 10 years. We have seen new EU legislation, such as the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and provisions around Human Rights Due Diligence (HRDD), introducing tighter requirements for businesses to check working conditions of those who provide their goods and services.
Transparency is key and collaboration between businesses, trade unions and NGOs is now being used to address complex issues across sectors and across countries. Businesses now have a responsibility to check that workers are being treated well, that there are communication mechanisms in place to raise concerns and that remediation processes are effective.
In today’s fast-paced business environment, even small to medium-sized enterprises may have complex supply chains. Businesses may have countless suppliers, who in turn have their own suppliers. Add to the mix regular and rapid changes to achieve best value or meet seasonal demand and you have an environment where unscrupulous labour providers can often thrive. Our Service has helped companies like John Lewis, Yorkshire Water, and rail suppliers Voestelpine UK tackle modern-day slavery by conducting research, carrying out risk assessments, and digging beneath the surface to get to what’s really happening in their supply chains.
If you take the food sector, it is highly reliant on seasonal and agency workers, particularly at peak times. In the agricultural sector in particular, many farms recruit migrant workers who can be at risk of exploitation from gangmasters. Without the right processes, systems and training in place, businesses are at risk of infiltration by less scrupulous intermediaries, leaving workers open to exploitation. The service enables us to have a business conversation with companies to ensure that they are able to protect themselves and their supply chains from illegal practices that could be hugely damaging for their business and workers’ human rights.
As well as our risk assessment activities, we also provide bespoke training to help support businesses who want to take a proactive approach to tackling modern slavery within their companies and their supply chains.
We have worked alongside businesses to improve the due diligence process and to better understand the risks to workers' rights, before problems happen. Our risk assessment services help businesses anticipate pitfalls with suppliers and provide up-to-date guidance and advice on what risks businesses need to be actively addressing, going forward. We also provide training to HR, procurement and technical teams so that they are better equipped to identify risks within their businesses.
Contact Cristina Talens to discuss your business needs via wilberforce@hull.ac.uk
What does the Modern Slavery Act mean for my business?
The UK’s Modern Slavery Act was introduced in 2015. One of its key provisions is to require businesses with an annual turnover of over £36m to disclose each year what action they have taken to ensure there is no modern slavery in their business or supply chains. Depending on the scope of their operations, businesses may also be affected by EU Due Diligence legislation.
The Modern Slavery Act has provision for legal enforcement and prosecution but perhaps of equal weight is the potential for bad publicity and damaged reputation with customers, should a business fail to deal with modern slavery risks in their supply chains.
And the UK Modern Slavery Act is not always the only legislation that businesses need to worry about. Many will also have to meet new due legal requirements such as the EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and meet Human Rights Due Diligence (HRDD) provisions in the countries where they operate.
Free Wilberforce Business Academy Training
The Wilberforce Institute recognises the time pressures affecting businesses, so has developed a free online training programme that offers a bite-size introduction to key issues. Perfect for a business looking for practical hands-on advice to help address key labour issues in your organisations and supply chains.
Visit the Wilberforce Business Academy page to sign up for a new training session or view films from previous sessions.