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Responsible Labor Initiative
In 2021 trafficked and forced labor garnered additional attention from the international community due to greater risks to migrant workers during the global health pandemic and an evolving geopolitical landscape.
The Responsible Labor Initiative (RLI) continued to provide support to its members by adapting and growing its due diligence approach and tools, as well as ensuring continued engagement with a broadening stakeholder community. In addition, RLI membership and partnerships grew and diversified during the year, adding to our ability to affect positive change in this critical area. To help support the RLI’s growth, we also launched a standalone website for the initiative.
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During 2021, the RLI’s key achievements included: • Measured progress of the initiative’s strategic priorities • Issued standards and guidance to further enable credible investigation and repayment of recruitment fees to workers • Launched membership levels within the RLI to encourage deeper supply chain due diligence and accountability • Advanced responsible employment and recruitment through regional programs
PROGRESS ON STRATEGIC PRIORITIES
The RLI and its steering committee adopted a set of strategic imperatives in 2019 to guide the activities and engagement of the initiative. While the external landscape created headwinds to international efforts on this critical issue, the RLI continued to make progress in many areas of this five-year plan as detailed in the following sections.
BY THE END OF 2021, THE RLI AND ITS MEMBERS HAD FACILITATED THE REPAYMENT OF RECRUITMENT FEES TO WORKERS IN EXCESS OF US$61M TO DATE.
Collective influence through membership growth and partnerships
The RLI worked to deepen its collective influence through engagement with additional leading companies and external partners. For example, a significant number of medical supply companies joined the initiative to strengthen the efforts of existing members in the electronics, automotive, toy, retail, food and beverage, footwear and apparel, telecommunications, and other sectors. In addition, the RLI advanced key partnerships with influential organizations, including those with seats on our multi-stakeholder steering committee.
Transparency and impact measurement
The RLI and its steering committee made significant progress toward establishing an industry and company-specific reporting framework to measure the impact of our collective efforts. In 2021, the RLI worked with international human rights NGO Shift to complete a detailed theory of change that identified key points in the overall recruitment and employment environment to measure. From this, a draft set of indicators has been developed and will be piloted in 2022 with real-world data to establish a sustaining set of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for the industries with which we work.
In addition, in 2021, the RLI and its members combined to demonstrate progress on existing indicators including the repayment of recruitment fees to workers in excess of US$61M to date.
Members of the RBA and RLI have consistently applied the RBA’s “no fees” policy for many years, providing remedy to thousands of workers at risk for bonded labor. Through these years of experience, it became apparent that a standardized methodology for identifying and repaying recruitment and employment fees charged to workers was vital for consistent, credible remediation. Working with members, staff and stakeholders, the RBA and RLI completed and implemented the Standard for the Investigation and Repayment of Fees in 2021 to ensure that instances of fee charging in members’ supply chains are thoroughly investigated, a fair, credible repayment plan is developed and implemented, and long-term policy and management systems are established at sites with non-conformances in this area to prevent future instances. The Standard is now a fundamental aspect of due diligence for our members as we continue to work toward addressing forced and bonded labor in international supply chains.
RLI MEMBERSHIP LEVELS
Companies seeking to apply internationally recognized forced labor due diligence in their supply chains may have different needs based on their industry, resources, maturity level and other factors. In 2021, the RLI introduced a tiered membership level structure, to provide an accountability framework for members that wish to demonstrate the performance of their due diligence systems while also preserving a community of practice that allows members to grow at their own pace. This provides a place for any company within the RLI as we work toward the vision and mission of the organization.
The membership levels include: • RLI Supporter Level: consistent with traditional criteria for members to support the vision and mission of the RLI
• RLI Regular Level: a new membership level that includes criteria for companies to publicly commit to forced labor standards and conduct appropriate supply chain due diligence on this topic.
With the help of our multi-stakeholder steering committee members, the levels were developed and socialized with current and prospective members during a 6-month transition period ending in December 2021. Members are able to select their membership levels in 2022 and the RLI will provide public visibility to those levels in 2023.
The RBA Foundation was awarded a $1.1 million grant from the Walmart Foundation in November 2020 to continue its efforts in promoting safe worker migration in the Nepal-Malaysia and Indonesia-Malaysia labor migration corridors through the transformation of recruitment practices in supply chains. This builds on the first phase of the Responsible Recruitment Program (RRP) that concluded in March 2021, which was funded by the same donor in a previous grant. The report for this grant, which also covers the earlier Responsible Workplace Program (RWP), is publicly available. Under the new grant, the RBA Foundation and its implementing program partner, the International Organization for Migration (IOM), aim to achieve four key outcomes: • Risks of forced labor in Malaysia supply chains are reduced through empowerment of jobseekers and workers; • Rights and dignity of migrant workers in
Malaysia are better protected through private recruitment agencies’ compliance to international standards on responsible recruitment; • Strategic multi-stakeholder partnership and advocacy to harmonize responsible recruitment standards and strengthen capacity for the implementation of responsible recruitment programs across the migration corridors; and • Jobseekers and workers are able to seek effective remedy, when their rights are violated, through better access to a grievance mechanism at every level of their migration journey.
Since August 2020, the RBA Foundation has worked with other partners to conduct studies on stakeholder mapping and feasibility of piloting an economic incentive model for zero-fees, as well as engaged with relevant stakeholders such as brands, suppliers, recruitment agencies, government officials and civil society organizations in countries of origin and destination prior to the implementation of the activities. These studies and consultations will help to enhance the program activities that are expected to be completed by December 2022. Some of the key activities to be implemented during this grant period are: • Continuation of the second phase of the RRP where 48 private recruitment agencies will be enrolled in an ethical recruitment maturity pathway that consists of capacity building, self-assessment and audits; • Piloting economic incentive models for ethical recruitment; • Partnering with local civil society organizations in the countries of origin to conduct pilot preemployment and pre-departure orientation training for jobseekers and workers; • Partnering with government in the country of destination to pilot a post-arrival orientation training for workers; • Increasing engagement with stakeholders such as workers, civil society organizations and governments through various outreach and review meetings; and • Increasing worker voice through the expansion of the RBA Helpline to jobseekers.
For more information on the RLI,
visit ResponsibleLabor.org.
For more information on the RBA Foundation,
visit RBAFoundation.org.
