Labor Department Official Says Forced Labor Enforcement Creating a 'New Era'

The Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act and the likelihood that the EU will pass a due diligence directive requiring disclosure of forced labor risk for large companies are changing the paradigm of supply chain visibility, a top Labor Department official said during a webinar on human rights in global supply chains. Thea Lee, a long-time union official and now deputy undersecretary for international affairs in the Bureau of International Labor Affairs, said, "I do think that we are in a new era, and it will behoove most companies to start taking these steps to be able to have the eyes into their supply chain whether they are directly impacted right now by the EU directive or whether they are selling goods into the United States."

European Parliament member Heidi Hautala, who said her frustration with chocolate multinationals' ignorance of the child labor tainting their supply chains moved her to push the mandatory due diligence legislation, said there is technology to help firms figure out where their suppliers' suppliers are working. CBP told her "they have access to very sophisticated instruments that scan by isotope analysis," so that they can figure out if cotton comes from Xinjiang, she said.

Lee said she had been frustrated for decades when company officials said they could not know what was happening several levels down in their supply chains. "We have to go beyond laying out expectations, and committing and promising," she said, as the number of children engaged in child labor is growing, not shrinking.

She said the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act "puts a real burden of proof on companies. It’s an extraordinary measure but it’s needed simply because there is no transparency in Xinjiang." She said the government "can make the economic consequences significant enough that companies will do a better job."