The UK’s former Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner has warned Britain risks becoming a “dumping ground” for forced labour goods as many global consumer goods companies are still grappling with modern slavery risks.
Sara Thornton has called for the UK Modern Slavery Act to require companies to disclose modern slavery when they find it, as it emerged global fmcg giants such as P&G and McDonald’s are doing worse in finding and addressing these risks compared to UK ones.
A new modern slavery benchmark by the CCLA, the UK’s largest charity fund manager, found that consumer goods companies on a global scale performed better than any other sector, with Switzerland’s Nestlé and US-based Costco among the top scorers.
However, global companies on average still scored lower than British companies in the 2024 UK-only report, which saw M&S and Tesco among the top scorers – “suggesting the UK imports greater modern slavery risk through its open markets”, the research said.
Tougher legislation
Thornton, who is a modern slavery director at CCLA, said: “The UK Modern Slavery Act was world-leading in 2015, but that was a decade ago now.
“As peer nations continue their progress to toughen legislation to combat modern slavery, notably the EU and the US, we are now falling behind, leaving the UK exposed to being seen as a dumping ground for goods tainted with forced labour.”
She added: “As a first step we would like to see the UK Modern Slavery Act require companies to disclose modern slavery when they find it.
“This would give investors and others good indications of how hard companies are looking for it and would focus accountability for providing redress to victims.”
The CCLA’s inaugural Global Modern Slavery Benchmark pilot evaluates how global companies combat modern slavery in their operations and supply chains to help investors understand the risks in their holdings.
The pilot benchmark assesses the efforts of the 100 largest globally listed companies by market capitalisation that provide goods or services within the UK, and are therefore subject to the Modern Slavery Act.
Read more: Beyond Unilever: Alan Jope on soap, slavery, and the supply chain
The research showed there was significant disparity between the best (Cisco Systems, Costco, and Nestlé) and the worst performing companies, which included Philip Morris International and the Saudi Arabian Oil Company.
Other fmcg giants such as PepsiCo and Coca-Cola featured in the second-best performing category for ‘evolving good practice’. McDonald’s, Johnson & Johnson, and P&G were found to only ‘meet basic expectations’.
Policy & practice
The investors’ group found there was a “gap between policy and practice”, with “greater transparency on policy and procedure and less disclosure on practice and how the harm to victims was rectified”.
Only one in four companies (23) disclosed finding a case of modern slavery, which “raises questions on the effectiveness of due diligence processes and limits companies in their approach to providing redress to victims on the basis that ‘you can’t fix what you have not found’”, according to the CCLA. Just one company confirmed that victims were satisfied with the redress provided.
Overall, the benchmark showed “plenty of room for improvement” with global companies scoring less than those included in the UK benchmark last year.
Dr Martin Buttle, better work lead at CCLA, said: “One of the key questions we had is to what extent foreign domiciled companies respect UK reporting requirements in both letter and spirit?
“As investors, we expect businesses to undertake human rights due diligence, not merely as part of a tick-box exercise, but dedicating appropriate care and resources to play their part in addressing and preventing modern slavery in their businesses and supply chains.
“We have seen companies in CCLA’s UK Modern Slavery Benchmark improve and we hope to see this trend reflected in the global benchmark also.”
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