Lab releases forced labor brief on commercial contracts and sourcing

Our joint partnership, Re:Structure Lab, has released its second of six thematic forced labor evidence briefs, most recently focused on commercial contracts and sourcing. These briefs, each rethinking a key component of how severe labour exploitation continues to thrive in global supply chains, are drawn from the academic literature and the Lab team's field experience. The Commercial Contracts and Sourcing brief outlines how contracts and sourcing practices, as well as the legal regimes surrounding them, could change to promote equitable labour practices and protect supply chain workers from exploitation. The authors provide an overview of sourcing tools and agreements that promote decent work, including living wage benchmarks, ringfenced labor costs and binding worker-driven social responsibility agreements.

 

Re:Structure Lab is a collaboration among our center, University of Sheffield's Political Economy Research Institute (SPERI), and Yale University's Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition. The multi-university team includes: Sheffield Professor Genevieve LeBaron, Gilder Lehrman Center affiliate Luis CdeBaca, Center Director of Human Trafficking Research Jessie Brunner, and a half-dozen contributing staffers.