The Guardian published an article on their online news website on February 1, 2016 discussing the controversial story of international food and drink company Nestlé’s admission of slavery. This was seen as act of bravery and transparency from Nestlé as they willingly addressed the foundation of forced labour in its supply chains in Thailand. Nestlé also defended itself by stating it would be nearly impossible for any other company exporting seafood from Thailand to avoid the same risks. While some view Nestlé‘s addimission as an act of bravery, others view it as an attempt to fend off accusations that the company allegedly uses child slaves in other, more profitable, parts its business.
Many people in the west believe slavery is a historical concept; however, a new index, The Modern Slavery Index, make it evident that consumers, from all over the world, use products produced as a result of modern-day slavery raging from the age-old practices of servitude, human trafficking, and forced and compulsory labor (Abdi Latif Dahir, 2016). The index found that companies to continue to face exposure of slavery in their busniess operations or supply chains in 115 countries worldwide (Abdi Latif Dahir, 2016). Although companies attempt to tackle the issues of slavery within all contributors, problems persist that may lead to the lowering down of the supply chain at the commodity level, or amongst subcontractors. In this case, Nestlé can be seen to breach ethics due to the lawsuit against it and other big companies’ use of child labour pending trail. The company is accused of coming forward with their admission of modern-day slavery only to use it as a mask to cover the allegation of their use of child labour in the more profitable parts of their business (Kelly, 2016).
The likelihood Nestlé using the admission to cover up other, bigger allegations is highly probable. The company was aware when the allegations of child labor use had risen that investigations would lead to the uncovering of modern-day slavery in their supply chains in Thailand as well. With their keen analysis of the impacts of both the company found that admitting to modern-day slavery along with a suitable justification it would be able to escape the allegations of being a company uncaring of ethical concerns. The company used the inevitable use of slavery in seafood suppliers, a low-profit area of the company’s business, in Thailand as their justification. The company also used the fact that modern-day slavery is more common and more socially tolerable than child labour (see figure 1). However, Nestlé still portrayed the matter as intolerable for the company and stated that it would “begin a new era of self-policing its supply chains” (Kelly, 2016).
(Figure1)
References:
Article –
Kelly, A. (2016, February 01). Nestlé admits slavery in Thailand while fighting child labour lawsuit in Ivory Coast. Retrieved September 13, 2017, from https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2016/feb/01/nestle-slavery-thailand-fighting-child-labour-lawsuit-ivory-coast#img-1
Africa, Q. (2016, October 21). Modern-Day Slaves Are Still Producing Goods Used Around The World. Retrieved September 13, 2017, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/modern-day-slave-are-still-producing-goods-used-around-the-world_us_5808f07ae4b0dd54ce38c551
Verité. (n.d.). Retrieved September 13, 2017, from https://www.verite.org/
Figure 1 –
Dahir, A. L. (2016, October 17). Countries most at risk of having modern slavery. Retrieved September 13, 2017, from https://www.theatlas.com/charts/ByVwbwMkx