ILAB Seeks Comment on Supply Chain Tools to Prevent Forced Labor or Child Labor
The Department of Labor's Bureau of International Labor Affairs (ILAB) is seeking comments on its Comply Chain: Business Tools for Labor Compliance in Global Supply Chains, as well as three reports on child labor and forced labor in certain foreign countries, through Dec. 16, it said in a Federal Register notice.
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ILAB is putting out these reports in response to congressional mandates and a presidential directive. Officials have previously indicated plans to release these reports this fall (see 2407290051).
Through its Comply Chain knowledge tool, ILAB is seeking to develop a standard set of practices that will reduce the likelihood of goods being produced by forced labor or child labor. To do this, the agency is seeking information on how companies monitor labor practices both internally and within their supply chains.
"Many firms have policies, activities, and/or systems in place to monitor labor rights in their supply chains and remediate violations. Such policies, activities and systems vary depending on location, industry, and many other factors. ILAB seeks to identify practices that have been effective in specific contexts, analyze their replicability, and disseminate those that have potential to be effective on a broader scale through Comply Chain," ILAB said.
These business practices may include: "(1) Codes of conduct; (2) Sets of standards used for implementation of codes in specific industries or locations or among particular labor populations; (3) Auditing/monitoring systems, or components of such systems, as well as related systems for enforcement of labor standards across a supply chain; (4) Strategies for monitoring sub-tier suppliers, informal workplaces, homework, and other challenging environments; (5) Training modules and other mechanisms for communicating expectations to stakeholders which incorporate worker input; (6) Traceability models or experiences; (7) Remediation strategies for children and/or adults found in conditions of forced or child labor; (8) Reporting-related practices and practices related to independent review; (9) Projects at the grassroots level which address underlying issues or root causes of child labor or forced labor; (10) and/or any other relevant practices."
ILAB said it will use submissions of comments, reports, analyses, toolkits and the like to inform the development of tools and resources that the agency will eventually disseminate publicly.
In addition to announcing plans to develop standards for the supply chain, ILAB is also publishing and seeking comments on three reports on child labor. The reports assess countries' responses to child labor (see 2401050051) or list goods that are believed to be produced by forced labor or child labor. These reports are expected to be released around Sept. 5.