Businesses warned on supply chain slavery

Firms urged to act ahead of legislation to address an issue that affects thousands of workers in NZ. Brianna Mcilraith reports.

Industry leaders are encouraging businesses to acknowledge modern slavery issues within their companies before any legislation requires them to do so.

In 2021, 115 businesses signed an open letter calling for legislation to be introduced to combat modern slavery in New Zealand.

Two years later, the legislation is still only in the policy analysis stage and is yet to be drafted.

EY was one of the businesses to sign the open letter and its climate change director, Gerri Ward, said that every year about $3 billion in products on New Zealand shelves were linked to modern slavery.

Modern slavery is severe exploitation that means a worker cannot leave due to threats, violence or deception. It includes forced labour, debt bondage, forced marriage, slavery and human trafficking.

The International Labour Organisation (ILO) estimates that there are more than 3000 people working under these conditions in New Zealand.

‘‘In terms of what this looks like, there’s a very dark-grey area between migrant exploitation and slavery,’’ Ward said.

‘‘A huge part of the problem is within the supply chains of the products that sit on our shelves.’’

World Vision estimated that New Zealand households spend about $34 a week on products associated with modern slavery.

‘‘New Zealand currently doesn’t have any accountability legislation requiring transparency in supply chains or operations, so often businesses will choose the lowest production cost without looking into why it is so cheap,’’ Ward said.

Throughout April and May last year, the Ministry for Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) sought feedback on the new legislation which aims to achieve freedom, fairness and dignity in the operations and supply chains of entities to address modern slavery and worker exploitation both in New Zealand and internationally.

The proposal would create new responsibilities across the operations and supply chains of all types of organisations in New Zealand.

Nita Zodgekar, manager of international labour policy at MBIE, said officials had been completing the policy analysis necessary for final decisions on the reform.

‘‘The modern slavery reform is a priority for the Government.

‘‘Ministers are considering the final policy proposals, ahead of Cabinet decisions for the bill to be drafted and the legislative process to commence.’’

Ward said companies did not need to wait for the legislation to be put in place.

‘‘There needs to be more understanding and transparency amongst businesses of the impact of their procurement decisions across their supply chain.

‘‘Companies can get started on this now by investigating and mapping their supply chain to understand where the risks may lie, and making changes to their procurement process where necessary.’’

Claire Gray of Christian charity Tearfund said there was increasing evidence that modern slavery was alive and well in New Zealand. The United Nations’ 2020 Trafficking in Persons report called New Zealand a destination country for forced labour.

The report also noted that ‘‘low levels of understanding of the crime across New Zealand’’ contributed to the issue.

‘‘We know anecdotally from our work in this space that the issue is widespread, and we believe Kiwis would be horrified to know the conditions that exploited workers are enduring in our own backyard,’’ she said.

‘‘The issue is huge – that is without even considering the risks and issues present in the offshore supply chains of Kiwi companies.’’

Tearfund was concerned the legislation would fall victim to election year reprioritisation.

‘‘Every day that our Government stalls, people remain trapped in exploitative and unfair working conditions. The time to act is now, not tomorrow and most certainly, not after the election.’’

There were some simple steps that businesses could take, she said. The first was ensuring there was strong knowledge and understanding of their supply chains to identify risks of exploitation or modern slavery.