Looking at the enticing shop displays in the UK, consumers see an array of familiar products and reassuringly well-known brands. Strip them back to their essential materials and many items, like our mobile phones, bars of chocolate, cotton shirts and bags of frozen prawns, may be linked to people working in slavery.

The idea is so alien to our principles of the free individual, an ugly relic from pre-modern societies, that we don’t even consider slavery to be anything to do with us: our well-organised modern world wouldn’t allow for it. But it very much does. The modern definition of slavery includes people who are forced to work due to coercion, physical or mental threats; are ‘dehumanised’ and treated as a commodity to be bought and sold by employers; who are restricted in terms of their freedom of movement. The campaigning group Anti-Slavery International estimates 24.9 million people are working as forced labour and 10 million children in slavery across the world. There are also forms of slavery that are less obvious, but increasingly common. ‘Debt bondage’ is where someone has paid an agent to get them a job, often overseas and in what’s seen as a more prosperous location. The huge fee paid for a dream ‘way out’ of poverty means that person is forced to keep working in that job to pay off the debt, their passport taken from them, leaving them in a worse financial position than before.

Modern slavery isn’t only a problem for the developing world. Government estimates suggest there are tens of thousands of people in modern slavery in the UK. It’s an international phenomenon, intertwined with all kinds of supply chains of materials extraction, agriculture and manufacturing; typically any industry involving labour intensive roles. The UK’s Modern Slavery Act 2015 requires all organisations with an annual turnover greater than £36m to publish an annual statement outlining what action they are taking to address the potential for modern slavery in their supply chains.

Any business can provide a general statement of its opposition to modern slavery; actively cleaning up their multi-tiered supply chain is something else entirely. Companies will thoroughly audit the surface level of suppliers, but won’t always have information on the levels further down, the smaller, more remote and hidden operations who are themselves purchasing from others. The situation is worsened by the demands of consumers for low prices and constant availability. When a brand demands delivery of a large order from a supplier with a short turnaround time, it’s more likely for them to subcontract to one or more firms able to fulfil the order, whatever their credentials. Pressure on prices encourages suppliers further down the chain to look to the cheapest options.

Stand up together

The 2015 legislation means businesses need to make a public statement annually on the issue.

It’s critical in terms of brand reputation and for businesses, their leaders, employees and stakeholders to know they are doing the right thing for vulnerable people unable to help themselves. And getting the balance right between policing and partnership takes sensitive handling. Simply cutting off relationships with suppliers linked to modern slavery means vulnerable groups of people lose their jobs and any source of income; the criminals involved move on to another target. What’s needed is management of relationships that encourage more responsibility and better working conditions and fair pay for the long-term.

The annual statements on modern slavery seen so far have been a mixed bunch. Some are short and straightforward, others go into more tangible detail. But contrary to the initial cynicism that the legislation lacked teeth, only demanding a statement rather than verifiable action, the statements have at least demonstrated an honesty among companies, an admission of problems and the need for closer attention.

Our research has involved working alongside a major international company in the textiles and fashion industry to support the evolution of its response to modern slavery. In particular this has meant exploring the value of ‘horizontal collaborations’; bringing companies from the same market sector and facing the same difficult issues together to share experiences, expertise, training and contacts as the basis for concerted action.

In this case that meant collaboration with 35 textiles brands as well as a nongovernment organisation (NGO) and a trade body able to provide a central point of contact for local insights and expertise. Drawing on industry experience from working on sourcing factory suppliers internationally, Amy spent time over a 20 month period working part-time in the company to learn more about the inner workings of the operations, the links with supply chains and the processes involved in auditing supply chains and local conditions. In turn this was the foundation for creating its first modern slavery statement. Activities included using Trade Body meetings as a forum to discuss the challenges; the development of a risk matrix on where resources are and areas of higher risk in supply chains; as well as developing a curriculum for training on modern slavery awareness and its relationship with purchasing decisions.

Local Action

A clear lesson from the research was the importance of working with NGOs with a local presence, contacts and knowledge of the actual arrangements and personalities involved on the ground. The collaboration among competitors meant much greater leverage via the NGO in terms of being able to engage with suppliers. A business acting alone can be ignored in a way a large group of brands can’t. The NGO was also able to provide training for some brands and support the development of internal training for others: how to identify modern slavery in all its different –sometimes subtle – forms; how best to run an audit; and what can be done in response to suspicions of forced labour and debt bondage in practical ways without unnecessary damage to workers’ lives. There was a particular breakthrough for the textiles firm when an audit identified indicators of modern slavery, leading to collaboration with a local NGO to provide a local response to remediation and give workers a voice to speak out. The issues are complex and subtle. Often instances of modern slavery come about as a result of a lack of knowledge, both among the factory-owners and employees, of the need for acceptable processes and level of care for staff.

When forming horizontal collaborations, it’s important that firms have a similar mindset and can decouple their Corporate Social Responsibility and commercial agendas, especially when collaboration involves direct competitors. It’s also key that the collaboration approach has top management support, enabling the kind of information sharing that can lead to industry-level improvements, and encourage modern slavery awareness to be filtered throughout the organisation. Communication needs to be strong. Collaboration can become counterproductive when firms aren’t sufficiently committed; projects begin to appear to be too time-consuming and not have the right level of pay-offs, leading to frustration and delays.

Horizontal collaboration to address an issue as complex as modern slavery needs to be ongoing, part of the constant battle. Because there will continue to be low levels of awareness among migrant workers of what constitutes reasonable treatment and conditions; and as soon as businesses believe themselves to be on top of one root cause of the problems, criminals will find another opportunity, another loophole. Only by acting together as a single group makes it practical to maintain a strong relationship with NGOs, the crucial link with the realities of people facing slave conditions each day of their lives.

Linda Hendry is Professor of Operations Management. Her research focuses on sustainable supply chain management and supply chain resilience, with a particular emphasis on the food and textile/clothing industries. l.hendry@lancaster.ac.uk

Dr Amy Benstead worked on the research into modern slavery as part of her doctoral studies at Lancaster having previously worked in the textiles and fashion industry. Equipped with her PhD, Amy was recruited to the School of Materials as a Lecturer in Fashion Management at the University of Manchester. amy.benstead@manchester.ac.uk

This article is based on the research paper ‘Horizontal Collaboration in Response to Modern Slavery Legislation: An Action Research Project’ by Amy Benstead, Linda Hendry and Mark Stevenson, published in the International Journal of Operations and Production Management.