Author: Kam Phung | Assistant Professor of Business & Society, Beedie School of Business, Simon Fraser University
Despite growing awareness and legislation aimed at eradicating modern slavery — including forced labour, bonded labour and other extreme forms of human exploitation — efforts to combat the issue remain largely ineffective.
The United Kingdom, the first to enact a modern slavery act in 2015, is a case in point. The latest government figures show 5,690 potential victims in the U.K. were referred to the Home Office between April and June. This is the highest quarterly figure since the national referral mechanism began in 2009.
This could be attributed to a multitude of reasons, including an actual rise in exploitation, growing awareness of the issue and more training being provided for frontline services. But the effectiveness of transparency and disclosure laws in achieving substantive change in businesses’ behaviours has long been questioned.
The article then dives into the details of how this happens and potential ways to address it
It’s a cultural problem.
“It makes us more money” will always be a viable excuse, because the useful idiots listening to it would do the same thing in their position.
Until our culture changes where we can put people before profits, then we shouldn’t expect these problems to be fixed.
Most people literally don’t want to fix them because most people don’t see it as a problem.
