Special Issue of Production and Operations Management 'Modern Slavery in Supply Chains: A Socio-Technical Perspective'

摘要

Modern slavery affects over 40 million individuals around the world; many of them are part of multi-tier, complex supply chains across developed, emerging, and subsistence economies. These individuals work in extremely harsh conditions, are underpaid, deprived of freedom, and often labor in very risky situations that can affect both their physical and mental health. This societal problem may be seen as a “wicked problem” involving high levels of complexity, uncertainty, and multi-causality, and is reflected in various UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) such as Goal 8 promoting Decent Work and Economic Growth. Slavery is nourished by vulnerabilities and inequalities and has various manifestations such as human trafficking, forced labor, child labor, neglected worker health and safety, and unfair worker treatments (e.g., payments, benefits, entitlements, and maternity/paternity leave). Recently, different legislations have been produced to tackle the problem of forced and slave labor, such as the US-California Transparency Act (2010), the UK Modern Slavery Act (2015), or the Australian Modern Slavery Act (2018). These legislations face challenges to detect and then ameliorate modern slavery and other severely exploitative practices because their roots are often buried in invisible supply chains, both local and international including the gig economy.