How can we eradicate modern slavery? Part three

With Dame Sara Thornton, former Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner in the UK, and Dr. Alex Trautrims, Professor of Supply Chain Management at Nottingham University Business School and Rights Lab Associate Director

Matthew Chiles: Now, in my conversation with Ryan and Helen, we spoke about standards and Helen had mentioned the role of BS 25700, the standard she has been involved in the development of. In this third and final part of the episode, we'll hear again from Alex Trautrims about BS 25700, but first from Dame Sara Thornton, the former Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner in the UK, and my conversation with her at the BSI Standards Conference and Awards.

I started by asking Sara about her hopes for the standard.

Sara Thornton: Well, it'd be great to see lots of businesses being accredited to this standard. But I think what's more important is that their performance has changed and as they make their business decisions, that they're informed by broader issues of human rights, but specifically issues of anti-slavery, to make sure that we are not in our businesses exploiting the most vulnerable people and workers across the globe.

Matthew Chiles: And you mentioned there your previous role as Anti-Slavery Commissioner. Tell us about that role. 

Sara Thornton: I held the role for three years. It's a statutory role and my job was to encourage good practice in investigating and detecting modern slavery, supporting victims, but also in preventing modern slavery – which is why I'm really interested in the role of business and what businesses can do to prevent it from happening in the first place. 

Matthew Chiles: So this issue of anti-slavery, where do we need to look first in order to tackle it? 

Sara Thornton: Well, if we're thinking about businesses in the UK, we know that some sectors are higher risk than others. Agriculture, food processing, maybe hospitality, construction, contract work in terms of cleaning, that sort of thing. Very often where you've got lower-paid, lower-skilled work, which is often attractive to migrants who might be here regularly or might not.

There's real potential for people to be forced to work. They might have their documents taken from them. They might be in debt to their employer. They might, in fact, be controlled by organized crime groups who will take virtually all of their money. 

So I think there are sectors to look at, certainly in the UK, and the same internationally. We know there are hotspots, whether that's fishers in Thailand, brick kilns in India, or cotton in China.

“We know that there are sectors where businesses need to be super vigilant, not just with their tier one suppliers, but actually looking down beyond the chain – where have these products been farmed or dug out the ground initially – because that's where you'll find the most vulnerable workers who are all too often subject to forced labor.

 In fact, last September, we had the new global slavery estimates which estimated across the globe there are just under 28 million people in forced labor. That's an awful lot of people.”

That's why it's great that the standard raises awareness, but also gives businesses a sense of a toolkit, a bit of a playbook so they know what to do to deal with it.

Matthew Chiles: You talked about that playbook and that toolkit. What are the levers that are required to make real systemic change? To tackle the problem of those millions of people who are working in those sorts of conditions? 

Sara Thornton: So part of the response is about having good legislation and good regulation, which not only makes it clear that trafficking and slavery are illegal in every country across the globe, but also that protects labor and workers’ rights, because these things don't happen in isolation. You very often get a steady deterioration that then tips over into criminal activity, slavery and human trafficking. But businesses can do so much more voluntarily. 

None of us wants to buy a service or product where people have been forced to work. So what can businesses do? We can't as consumers look down the supply chain, we rely on businesses to do that, to be good, ethical business people to make sure that we are not enjoying, whether it's a product or a service, which is based on the exploitation of another fellow human being.

Matthew Chiles: We're speaking here at the Standards Conference. We heard on the platform one of the keynote speakers talking about how you don't need everyone to change at the same time. You might need 25 per cent of a particular group of people to create systemic change. 

I just wonder where you think we are with the issue of modern slavery? At what point do you think we will hit that moment where there's a realization and we will then suddenly get an acceleration of change? How far away are we from that? 

Sara Thornton: I think change is accelerating across the globe, particularly if you think about law enforcement and regulation. So in the United States, they will place import bans on goods that have been brought into the United States where there is a suspicion that there is forced labor. They're using those import bans much more. There are now 54 in operation, I know from having spoken to them this week. 

But also in the EU, there are laws proposed on mandating sustainability due diligence, which includes human rights due diligence, but also looks at forced labor bans within the EU. 

So the trend of regulation is moving in the right direction, but there's so much more we can all be doing voluntarily in the meantime. I think we might well look back in 10 or 15 years time and say, did we really tolerate that sort of abuse, just so we could buy something in the shop just a bit cheaper? I think we might be shocked.

Matthew Chiles: Now, we complete part three and this episode how we started with Alex Trautrims and a quick guide to the standard we discussed throughout this episode, BS 25700, which provides that toolkit or playbook that Sara mentioned to have organizations make those voluntary changes to address the issue of modern slavery.

I fire some questions at Alex, starting with the obvious one and going right back to the beginning. What is the standard all about? 

Alex Trautrims: So the standard BS 25700 really is all about helping organizations in formulating and implementing their responses to modern slavery risks that they may face. 

Matthew Chiles: What type of standard is it?

Alex Trautrims: It is a guidance standard. It is a very comprehensive document, with a lot of expert knowledge on how organizations best deal with modern slavery. 

Matthew Chiles: Why is it being developed?

Alex Trautrims: It is being developed because pretty much all organizations in the world face modern slavery somewhere in the organizations, in their supply chains, and in the wider supply chain organization. So really companies have a need to address modern slavery and also to address SDG 8, which is to achieve decent work for all, including the eradication of modern slavery. 

Matthew Chiles: What is meant by the term modern slavery? 

Alex Trautrims: Modern slavery is used as an umbrella term really for the most serious forms of exploitation, which includes forced labor, human trafficking and servitude.

Matthew Chiles: Who is the standard for?

Alex Trautrims: The standard is for practitioners both in the public sector and the private sector who want to undertake work against modern slavery and want to implement that in their organizations in a coordinated and meaningful way. 

Matthew Chiles: How do organizations use the standard? 

Alex Trautrims: The standard is really a management system at its core in that it coordinates antislavery work. But then from that system onwards, it really goes into identifying what are the highest risk areas, what should be the top priorities of the organization, and then how to undertake activities that address those priority areas.

Matthew Chiles: By using the standard, what benefits does it bring the organization?

Alex Trautrims: So the organization itself is then in a position to deal with modern slavery risks effectively and in a coordinated way. I think at the moment we see many businesses do different types of activities in different areas, very often not particularly well coordinated. So this is really bringing this together, forming it into a management system that makes sure the organization is actually using its resources in the best way possible to address modern slavery.

Matthew Chiles: How does it work alongside other standards? 

Alex Trautrims: So the standard sits within a larger framework of international and domestic laws that are evolving very rapidly at the moment. The standard is obviously not competing with these other legal frameworks, but it is really there to help organizations to comply with their obligations and to help them to implement anti-slavery activities in their organization. 

Matthew Chiles: Who was involved in developing the standard?

Alex Trautrims: About 50 people were part of the committee that developed the standard and they came from very different areas. We had practitioners from businesses, from the public sector, academic experts, NGOs, and also contributors with lived experience. And people also came together from different topic angles. 

Therefore we had a really good number of people who are modern slavery experts, but also a good number of experts on risk management. Bringing these individuals together was really, really useful. 

Matthew Chiles: What difference will the standard make? 

Alex Trautrims: We hope that this standard really helps organizations to implement effective responses to modern slavery, and we hope that it will help organizations to make their modern slavery responses as effective and as meaningful as possible. It really is basically a big education piece. There is a lot of knowledge in the standard, a lot of what experts see as best practices out there, and we hope that this will be helpful for people to access that knowledge and utilize it.

Matthew Chiles: So my thanks to Alex Trautrims, Dame Sara Thornton, Helen Carter, Ryan Lynch and Fred Waelter for speaking to me about the issue of modern slavery for The Standards Show. My thanks also to BSI’s Cici Liu for all of her help in producing this episode.

To find out more about creating ethical and sustainable supply chains and organizational responses to modern slavery, including the standard BS 25700, check out the links in the show notes. 

Want to learn more? The previous two sessions are also available; the role of consumers within ethical supply chains with BSI’s Principle Consultant in Sustainable Supply Chains, Fred Waelter. 

And a conversation on using standards to protect human rights with Dame Sara Thornton, former Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner in the UK, and Dr. Alex Trautrims, Professor of Supply Chain Management at Nottingham University Business School and Associate Director at Rights Lab.

Explore more prioritizing people topics

• Health, safety and well-being
• Future of work 
• Diversity, equality, and inclusion 
• Ethical supply chain

Subscribe to the standards show, wherever you get your podcasts.