Efforts by the Trump administration to impose tariffs on countries that it deems do little to discourage or penalize companies that profit from forced labor have reignited the need for compliance teams to ask deeper questions about how their organizations attempt to uncover incidences of modern slavery in the workplace and supply chains.
While only relatively few countries have laws in place that specifically require companies to detect and report on incidences of modern slavery (such as the U.K. and Australia’s Modern Slavery Acts), many more have overarching legislation in place that can be used to impose sanctions on companies for failing to conduct appropriate human rights due diligence in their operations and supply chains. Examples include Germany’s Supply Chain Act, France’s Duty of Vigilance Law, and the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CS3D). Furthermore, regulatory and investor expectations that companies are taking these issues seriously are growing.
