Forced Labor
Workers in global supply chains often face exploitative conditions, including wage theft, violence and harassment, unsafe workplaces, excessive hours, discrimination, and threats when they fail to stay silent about these abuses. These widespread abuses in garment-producing countries occur on the same spectrum as forced labor violations, leaving workers at high risk.
Globally, more than 27 million people work under forced labor conditions. To help identify forced labor situations, the ILO outlines 11 key indicators —commonly used by U.S. government agencies in policy enforcement—which highlight how poor workplace conditions can escalate into forced labor exploitation.
By responding to worker complaints at individual factories and assessing the possible violations from a holistic approach, the WRC has identified cases of forced labor and severe exploitation in companies’ global supply chains, pressing corporations to take immediate action to remedy the violations at their supplier factories.
The WRC also tackles corporate complicity with state-imposed forced labor. Beginning with our investigation into Hetian Taida Apparel beginning in late 2018, the WRC has engaged on the issue of Uyghur forced labor. Additionally, the WRC is a member of the Tariff Act Advisory Group (TAAG), a coalition of nongovernmental organizations dedicated to effective enforcement from a worker-centered perspective under Section 307 of the Tariff Act, and a steering committee member of the Coalition to End Forced Labour in the Uyghur Region.
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