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Because of its tamper-proof records and immutable and transparent records, blockchain technology is gaining ground as a way to eliminate an old and growing problem of slavery hidden in the complex and opaque global supply chains that exploit 25 million people.
Even though forced labor or marriage has trapped around 40 million people worldwide, according to the Global Slavery Index (GSI) of 2018, the problem is also linked to hundreds of millions of businesses and consumers.
With brands that want cheap labor and desperate workers to escape poverty, it was easy for recruitment agencies, as intermediaries, to exploit the situation, said William Nee, a Chinese researcher for Amnesty International.
"One of the big challenges is when people are recruited or attracted to go and work somewhere, they often receive false promises or are being exploited by agencies wherever they come from," he said.
Low wages, poor compliance with decent working conditions and the relentless drive to produce more while suppliers strive to meet challenging quotas can be common in international supply chains. Work contracts and registrations can easily be modified, lost or different versions shown to brand customers.
Last year, only 66,000 of the exploited 40 million people, or 0.2 percent, were rescued, according to the 2017 trafficking report.
Workers could be deceived in a situation where they had accumulated debts before they even got to work, said Matt Friedman, founder and CEO of Hong Kong, the not-for-profit The Mekong Club, the last organization to adopt blockchain technology.
"Much of the reason is that they are deceived and do not realize it, because there is no transparency," he said.
"Once transparency is added to a procedure, it is very difficult to exploit it, it will make a difference for migrants and make them pay, have good working conditions and improve their lives".
The organization this year joined the Diginex digital service provider to create a platform, eMin, which focuses on the problems of working in the apparel industry.
Once officially launched in the new year, after initial testing throughout Southeast Asia, the recruited recruitment agencies would put worker information on the blockchain, before the factories added employment contracts. Once stored, the information can not be changed.
Trademarks could then use secure and transparent information to more easily control the process and exclude bad players.
One of the big challenges is when people are recruited or attracted to go to work somewhere, they often receive false promises or they are exploited by agencies wherever they come from.
William Nee, Amnesty International
"If there was a way to check the hours when the employees actually worked, the amount of money factories paid them, as their contract said – if this was completely transparent, it could save organizations like my tons of time and resources because we did not have to retest the documents we were faced with, "said Kyle Bogler, Director General for Compliance in Asia of VF Corporation, one of the largest apparel, footwear and accessories companies in the world that owns the Vans, North brands Face and Timberland.
Modern slavery
The company uses 920 producers publicly disclosed and collaborates with the Mekong Club for more than a year to try to tackle the problems of forced labor in its processes.
"We are looking at what we can do as a company … how we can ensure that we have a human rights strategy on forced labor," said Bogler, who is open to the use of blockchain once it is fully developed.
The adoption of technology remains in the early stages and one of the challenges is the risk of entering false data.
"There is a real misunderstanding about the fact that blockchain will solve the problems of the world, but if the data on the ground is fraudulent, you're putting waste and blockchain will not solve it," said Phoebe Ewen, project manager at The Mekong Club.
According to the manager of the Western and Central Pacific tuna program of the World Wide Fund, Bubba Cook, fraudulent data could be entered into a company once or twice, but would eventually be detected and evidence of an investigation would be recorded on the blockchain. For example, if a vessel was not a paying crew, the uploaded documents would be loaded.
A more established blockchain platform was created by the UK-based technology company Everledger. Although it has not been used to tackle labor problems, it has shown how technology can help fight fraud in the diamond industry by monitoring the provenance and authenticity of diamonds, from mines to retailers.
Since its founding in 2015, the company has registered over three million color, carat, history and transport diamonds on the blockchain and is now extending the mechanism to other high-value goods such as wines, precious stones and metals.
"We capture not only the mine of origin, but also the processes and procedures that go beyond the boundaries of international trade," said founder Leanne Kemp.
Although some family brands have already met previously to form groups, such as the 1999 Fair Labor Association which promotes international labor laws, progress in the elimination of human rights has been minimal and scandals have tainted reputation. of some companies.
For example, in 2016, nine famous food and family brands, including Unilever, Nestle, Colgate, and Procter & Gamble, have sold products containing palm oil contaminated with human rights violations in Indonesia, according to a report by Amnesty International.
Legislation such as the Modern UK Slavery Act of 2015 has brought the issue closer to attention, while pressure from consumers and investors also highlights the need for technology to help brands that want to prevent reputation damage.
"The brands are worried about the fact that the factories they work with have a forced job, being able to verify and validate that it is not happening becomes a real incentive, protecting them from any possible problem at a later time," Friedman said. . "Being able to sign a blockchain agreement offers a sense of security".
While the big brands sincerely wanted to "do the right thing" to avoid potential reputational risks, they needed the tools to do it, Cook said.
"Consumers want to be able to determine that what they are buying is what the seller says, and this provides us with the best opportunity available to do so," he said, adding that shareholders are also putting pressure on companies that have improve their practices.
In order for these platforms to have the desired effect, however, all players must work together, said William Anderson, vice president of the Adidas Group for Social and Environmental Affairs for Southeast Asia.
"Alone, no brand can really do this," he said.
"If we all identify, say, 10 recruitment agencies that seem to send [exploited] workers, who will have a much greater amplifier result. Collaboration is absolutely fundamental. "
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