Multistakeholder Initiatives and Forced Labour

The proposed project seeks to understand whether the ways in which businesses are run, and their boards are composed, may or may not influence attempts to tackle forced labour. Forced labour is a human rights violation according to Article Four of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Previously associated with colonial times, press reports around the world suggest that this process is still flourishing today. Recent efforts have focused on tackling this process by means of legislation (namely, the 2012 Transparency in Supply Chains Act in California, and the 2015 Modern Slavery Act in England and Wales) and voluntary regulation (such as corporate social responsibility). Nonetheless, incidents of forced labour still make the headlines, resulting in a quest for new ways to eradicate forced labour: multistakeholder initiatives (MSIs). The four main research questions this project seeks to answer are: 1) Why did the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, the International Labour Organization and the International Finance Corporation, and the Association of Labour Providers (jointly with the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority and Migrant Help) respectively initiate the Fair Food Program (FFP), the Better Work Programme (BW) and the Stronger Together initiative (S2), and invite multiple providers to support these campaigns? 2) What are the drivers motivating FFP, BW and S2 and what challenges have these MSIs experienced thus far? 3) How have the FFP, BW and S2 impacted on forced labour in supply chains and to what extent have they achieved their goals? 4) To what extent are these three MSIs sustainable and scalable? In order to answer these research questions, desk-based research, 50 semi-structured interviews and participant observation will be conducted. Findings from the initial desk-based research will be supplemented by data gained from in-depth interviewing an approach that will provide the opportunity for each interviewee to raise points that may have not been anticipated; hence, existing explanations for phenomena may be supported, corrected or supplemented by new factors that had not previously been acknowledged. Participant observation will enable me to gain better insights into: i) MSIs working mechanisms, by participating at meetings; ii) the role of the different stakeholders and how these roles change over time; and iii) MSIs effects on participants, by talking to and observing them. The novelty of this project lies in scrutinising whether or not MSIs are the best way to tackle forced labour and whether or not their composition influences the achievement of their goals.

Certification programmes by Multistakeholder Initiatives (MSIs) - a partnership by different stakeholders emanating from the private sector, public sector and/or civil society, have been touted as a tool to improve employment conditions of low wage workers not just with respect to wage levels, but safety and health aspects. Farmworkers in the United States fall within the low-wage-worker category and employment conditions in agriculture have been described as dirty, demeaning and dangerous. By taking the example of two MSIs (MSI A and MSI B) in California, the research attempted to understand whether farmworkers working on certified-MSI-farms fared better in terms of wage levels as well as safety and health aspects compared to farmworkers on non-certified farms. Data gathered from desk-based research, participant observation and semi-structured interviews with farmworkers, farm owners, non-profit representatives and government officials revealed that the certification programme by MSI A was not the decisive factor in explaining why farmworkers fared better than on the non-certified farm. In the context of MSI B, the certification programme did improve some aspects, such as clearing fields, though it did not protect farmworkers from adverse conditions, such as unlawful pesticide exposure and death. As such, in the case of MSI B, the existing power structure was somehow replicated. Both case studies were analysed through the lenses of power resource theory.